Reality Shift
by TWbasketcase
Summary: After a depressing birthday, Brian makes a wish that will change the lives of the Breakfast Club forever. What happens when they are left to fend for themselves through the eyes of someone else? [JohnClaire, AndyAllison, BrianOC]
1. A Very Unhappy Birthday

**Title**: Reality Shift  
**Author**: TWBasketcase  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Breakfast Club. This stands for all future chapters.  
**Summary**: After a depressing birthday, Brian makes a wish that will change the lives of the breakfast club forever. AndyAllison, JohnClaire, BrianOC.  
**Genre**: Humor/Supernatural/Drama/Angst/Romance/Suspense  
**Rated**: T for language and awkward situations.  
**A/N**: I know this is going to sound pretty clichéd at first, but please give it a chance. It will be different – I promise – and extremely long. I plan on this story to be 40 chapters, and will include all five members of the breakfast club in fair portions. I'm really excited about this, and I have been working extra hard on it; its planned out all the way to the last chapter. So I hope that you give it a chance and enjoy it!

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_**Reality Shift**_

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**Chapter 1 – A Very Unhappy Birthday**

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_Monday, March 12, 1985_

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Brian watched out the window as the sights and scenery of Taylor Street in Chicago flew by. The West side wasn't exactly the most appealing part of the big city. It was pretty over crowded due to the always expanding University campuses and medical facilities, so there were always people every where. However, the West end of Chicago held one little area that made Brian's mouth water. 

Little Italy.

Near the West end, the heart of little Italy stretched down Taylor Street. Although the street now housed more college and university students, as well as different Hispanics, it was absolutely famous for its cuisine. It held everything from small street stands to five star restaurants, and Brian dabbed into each at least once in his seventeen years of life.

Italian food was his absolute favorite. On normal occasions, Brian would eat one plate of dinner and that was all. Anytime he had Italian, however, he gorged himself until he couldn't walk anymore. There wasn't a single Italian dish that he could think of that he didn't like.

It only made sense that he would choose an Italian spot for his birthday dinner. For the first time in a long time he had been invited out by friends for his birthday. The last five birthdays had been strictly celebrated by his family only. Every year his grandparents would drive home from Evanston to visit, and they would have a roast beef dinner together. Things were usually more stressful than fun, however, due to the ongoing war waged between his grandmother and his mother. More often than not, the fights would be over the way she kept her house, the way she raised Brian and his sister, Mary, amongst other silly things. His father almost always ended up shouting, and his sister crying. One thing that was always certain was the crappy gifts they would bring for him. They were the only cheesy sweaters his mother refused to let him wear – and for that he was thankful.

This year was different as well as special. Almost a year ago he had been at his worst. By the time the second term of his sophomore year had begun, Brian had already earned some of his junior credits. Taking all that he could already take at that grade, he decided to choose an 'easy' course to maintain his grades until he was able to continue in advanced studies. Unfortunately for him, the course that he had chosen hadn't been as easy as initially thought, and he ended up failing it. Unable to bear the pressure of the lost grade from his parents, he drastically decided to take a gun to school – a move that landed him in a full day of Saturday detention. His mother and father were absolutely furious with him, he was grounded for two months, and he had to do community service at the school to replace the destroyed property. He was humiliated, stressed, depressed, and most of all lonelier than ever.

Fate was on his side that Saturday, and he met four other people in detention. At first glance, he was quite intimidated by the group. There were three types of people in there that picked on him and bullied him everyday, and the fourth, well she just scared the shit out of him because she was weird. By the end of the day however, they had opened up to each other and become friends. They all had found out that – despite their most obvious differences – they sure did have a lot in common.

As the weeks followed, their friendships deepened considerably and they did a lot of activities together. Claire – whom he initially dubbed the preppy queen – had developed a relationship with the group bad boy and dubbed criminal, John Bender. Allison, the strange girl who had scared him at first, had developed her own relationship with the boy wonder jock, Andrew Clark. Things were good, for the most part.

Their problem was those obvious differences. On so many deep levels the group had connected, but they just could never get over those big differences. They still had trouble with John's violence and criminal activities. They still had problems with Claire's attitude and financial status; as well as Brian's nerdiness, Allison's strangeness, and Andrew's hero complex.

Things stood stagnant where it counted the most.

He felt like he was always stuck in the middle of it all. John would bitch at Claire for being to snotty, Claire would bitch at Allison about cleaning her up a bit, Andrew would bitch at John for getting them into some trouble, and he was always the only one asking them to knock it off.

His birthday was no exception.

He was excited when they proposed the idea to him about taking him out to dinner in Little Italy. It was the first time since public school that anyone wanted to have a party for him. They offered to drive, pay, and even provide him a cake; he would never admit it, but he was so happy when they told him that he had to blink back tears. Putting aside their differences and doing something nice for him was the best birthday present he could have imagined.

Right after school that day he threw his backpack into his closet and immediately jumped into the shower to get ready. He wanted to look his best, which included cleaning up, styling his hair, wearing his best clothes, and shaving the small amounts of blonde hair on his face. He spent about an hour an a half getting ready, and another half an hour bouncing on the couch waiting for Andrew to come and pick him up in his bronco.

And when he did, the trouble began almost immediately.

Allison was riding shot gun with Andrew, which left him to sit in the back with Claire and John. Allison was annoyed with Andy for being late, Claire was yelling at John to stop messing up her hair, while John mocked her for doing so. Andrew had yelled at the entire group – at least a dozen times – to stop distracting him as he drove. Brian just leaned his head against the cool glass of the window to halt the oncoming headache that was fast approaching.

His happy birthday dreams were leaking down the drain fast.

* * *

"Well, we're here." Andrew stated as he parked the car in a large parking lot on the side of the street. 

"Way to state the obvious, Sporto." John mocked as he jumped out the car and began to stretch his limbs. Claire glared at him.

"Don't even start!" She warned. "It's Brian's birthday today, so we are not going to fight."

_Yeah right_, Brian thought.

"So where are we eating again?" Allison asked as she too hopped from the vehicle.

"The Rosebud," Claire replied shuffling through her purse as she walked towards the sidewalk on the street. The rest of the group followed suit and didn't say much until they got to the street.

John snorted. "Man, and I thought east side Shermer was a dump." He kicked at an old pizza box and let it skitter down the sidewalk. It came to a halt in front of an older gentleman who looked to be in his fifties or sixties – and very homeless.

Brian frowned and jogged ahead to pick up the crusty box. He nodded at the older gentleman. "Uh, sorry." The older man gave him no response, so Brian turned around and headed towards the nearest garbage can.

He waited up ahead until the group caught up. For once, they were actually fairly silent in their walk. Bender had his hands jammed into his pockets and he was looking through all the windows of the shops that they passed. Claire was still transfixed with the contents of her purse. Andy looked hungry in every sense of the word, while Allison just walked silently on the tips of her feet with her hair in her face. Brian sighed.

"Well, this is it," Claire proclaimed. It was a brown brick building with a small neon sign hanging from above the door. It wasn't much from the outside, but the inside was a whole other story.

"What's so special about this?" Bender queried.

Claire rolled her eyes. "It's one of the best Italian restaurants in town! Did you know Frank Sinatra eats here?" Andy grabbed the door for her and she walked in, leaving Bender on the sidewalk with her words. Andy gave him a blank look, which John only responded to with a shrug. Brian followed the two boys in the door, and they waited to be seated.

The inside of the restaurant was gorgeous. There were many mirrors on the walls, which were lined and made of mahogany wood. Each table was dressed with a white table cloth and decorated napkins. On the walls were pictures of dozens of celebrities who frequented the establishment. It was an impressive restaurant none the less.

"Hello, there! Did you have reservations?" The hostess asked with a sweet Italian accent.

Claire smiled politely and adjusted her purse strap. "Yes, um party of five for Standish?" The dark haired woman checked her notepad and nodded happily, gesturing the group to follow her lead. She took them to the left side of the room where they sat at a rectangular table next to the window, overlooking Taylor Street. As they took their seats, the hostess passed out their menus and told them that their waitress would appear shortly. Brian took off his jacket and wrapped it around the back of his chair, which was situated at the end of the table. The girls sat to his left, and Andrew and John to his right.

"This is really great, guys. Thanks a lot." Brian nodded his head at them and smiled.

Bender flung his menu open sloppily and snorted. "Yeah sure, dork." He flipped a few pages before his face contorted with confusion. "What in the fuck is pasta E faggy-olee?"

A few patrons turned their heads at his blunt words and Claire picked up on it. "John, watch your mouth! Its Pasta E _fagioli_! It's a soup." Her words were stern.

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "Well, I don't think that sounds very appetizing."

Andy stared at him for a few moments. "Dude, its food."

John closed his menu and set it down in front of him. "Well you don't say? I could have sworn that it was feces they listed in a fuckin' menu!"

Andrew only shrugged and continued reading his menu. "I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry, Andy." Brian pointed out amusedly. If it was one thing he could always count on it was Andy's stomach. Sometimes he wondered where the hell it all went.

"Can we just choose our meals in peace? Please?" Claire near begged. She had her forehead resting in her hand and she was massaging her temples. John just stared at her.

"I don't even know _how_ to read this crap. How am I supposed to pick what to eat?"

Brian felt that familiar annoyance building up in his chest. "Why don't you just have some lasagna then? And maybe some garlic bread with it? That's simple enough, isn't it?"

He blinked. "I'll have some spaghetti. And _balls_." He announced, loudly. There were a few gasps heard around their table and Brian slouched a bit. John grinned. "Oh sorry, I meant of the _meat_ variety."

The waitress approached their table. "Would you like a side order with that, sir?" She gave him a casual look and perked her eyebrows expectantly.

"He'll have some bruschetta," Claire cut in. "You can also get him a coke." She glared at John, daring him to say another word.

"Thanks, mom."

Brian winced and held his breath. Thankfully, Claire didn't carry on any further with him. Claire only looked at the waitress with a forced smile. "I'll have the veal limone with an iced tea please."

Andy cleared his throat. "Chicken alla parmigiana with pasta. I'll have a coke."

Brian smiled at the waitress. "Hello ma'am. If you don't mind, I will have the grilled fillet, and just give me chocolate milk."

She nodded curtly and stared at Allison, who for some reason, insisted on staring at her right back. The waitress perked an eyebrow. "Are you eating?"

Allison let out a loud breath and blew her bangs from her face. She stared down at her menu, and then looked back up at the waitress. "Antipasti salad with shrimp. Add some linguine noodles, guacamole, and ketchup."

The waitress looked confused. "On the side?"

Allison smirked. "Inside of it. All of it mixed together." She closed her menu and pushed it away from herself. She folded her arms and stared at the waitress once more. The waitress looked back at Claire.

"Should I get her a drink?"

Claire bit her lip and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Just get her a coke and she'll be fine."

"Inside of her salad or in a cup?"

"A cup is fine," Claire said, with a frustrated tone. So far, she seemed to be the only one acting like a civilized person in the restaurant. Brian was at least thankful for her. He was about to open his mouth when he noticed the waitress hadn't left yet.

"Um, did you need anything else?" Brian asked her politely.

She nodded her head and tucked a long strand of black hair behind her ear. "Is this all going on the same bill?"

She asked the dreaded question. That was when all hell broke loose. Why that sort of thing wasn't planned out ahead of time was beyond his knowledge, but this was the breakfast club he was talking about.

Allison looked at Andrew, and then Andrew stared at Allison. "What?" They asked each other simultaneously.

"You're the one who gets allowance!" She argued. "Besides, you're my boyfriend; you're the one who is supposed to treat me!"

The waitress gawked. "You're dating_ her_?"

Allison winced and glared at the young girl. "Yes, he is."

Andrew just looked a bit lost. "I thought you said you picked fifty dollars from someone this morning?"

"Well, I'm broke!" Bender declared happily.

Claire glared. "I'm so not getting into this with you guys because it always ends with me spending money, and that is not fair!"

"But you have the most of it!" Andrew pointed out as if it were the most obvious thing in the whole world.

"I spent that money!" Allison told him. Brian wasn't sure if he believed her or not. She always said random things that sometimes weren't very true.

Brian frowned at the waitress. "I can pay for my own meal, that is not a problem, Miss. I have birthday money…"

"NO!" Allison, Andrew, and Claire all yelled at him simultaneously. Brian winced; if the heads weren't turned before, they definitely were now. The three teens instantly turned their attention from Brian and back to each other. He looked back at the young waitress, who just looked completely stumped.

"I cannot believe _he_ is dating _her_!" She mumbled under her breath and she waited for her answer. She had her hip cocked out to the side as she tapped her pen on her notepad. Brian opened his mouth, but couldn't find it in him to retort.

"All I know is that I ain't paying. I'll fuckin' dine and dash if I have to." Bender announced.

"You couldn't have spent all of that in one morning, Allison! What did you buy?" Andy exclaimed.

"Probably more elephant sized tampons!" Bender laughed.

"Guys come, on! Don't you plan this ahead of time?" Claire asked, exasperated.

"This was your idea, Claire!" Allison pointed out.

"Well I can't…"

"But you should…"

"Fine! I'll fucking pay, you little brats!"

Brian let out a breath and looked around at all the faces that were staring at them. The others continued to bicker while the waitress stared. "Well I guess that's all on one bill…" She circled something on her pad and quickly made a hasty retreat to the back of the restaurant. Brian slumped in his seat and put his head in his hands.

* * *

They left the restaurant in silence. Claire was livid that she had to fork out almost seventy dollars to pay for their meals. Andrew and Allison weren't speaking to each other…and Bender was just pissed off and Brian wasn't sure why. They had been bickering nonstop all throughout their meal until someone had brought up the tab again – and they all had gotten so angry and frustrated that they decided to leave, and they didn't even give Brian his birthday cake. He clutched his leftover food in his hands and sighed dejectedly. 

"Can you spare me some change?" Brian jumped at the sound of the voice and looked down at the older homeless man that he had encountered earlier. He stopped to search his pockets as the rest of the group went ahead. When he came up with nothing but a twenty dollar bill, he shrugged.

"I guess I don't. I'm sorry." His hands fell to his sides in defeat. He felt even more pathetic.

"Don't worry. I'm sure the restaurants will throw out the leftovers again tonight. Have a good day." The older man whispered as he cuddled into his coat once more. Brian frowned.

"Well if that's the case, you can have _my_ dinner." He held out the brown bag ahead of him. The older man looked from the bag, to Brian, and back to the bag. He took it slowly and peered inside. He came up with a smile.

"What's the fancy food for?"

Brian shrugged sadly. "My birthday."

The old man smiled at him. "Happy Birthday, son."

Brian managed a smile for the older man and tucked his hands into the pockets of his brown coat. "Thanks, sir, but it wasn't a very nice one."

He picked at a piece of meat and plucked it into his mouth. "Well, what did you wish for then? Maybe it will come true and your day will be better?" It baffled Brian that a man with no home or possessions was so nice. Were they all like that?

"I didn't get to my cake. Supper went…bad," he offered.

The old man nodded and looked at Brian as he loudly chewed his food. "What were you going to wish for?"

What _was_ he going to wish for? He looked back down the sidewalk at his group of friends; they had started arguing again, and didn't even seem to notice that he was even behind them. He wished that they could just get along for one day. Maybe if they understood each other a little better, things would be a lot easier for them. When that Monday after detention came around they knew that they would be faced with some difficulties. Brian never thought they would still have them a whole year later.

"I don't know," Brian admitted. "A nice night with my friends was good enough for me."

"Just keep 'em close." The old man advised and dug into his food.

"Dork! Get your pansy ass over here before you get raped!" Bender hollered from down the street. Brian sighed and gave the old man one last glance. He nodded at the group of friends and gave Brian a wink. Brian returned the smile and waved the older man off, jogging to catch up with the group.

* * *

Brian closed his bedroom door and took off his sweater. The whole car ride home was silent. Not a single word or goodbye was said throughout the entire trip. The only thing he got was a mumbled apology from Andy before he sped off into the night. His birthday had been a total disaster and he wouldn't wish it on his worst enemy. He pulled on a flannel pajama top and some matching bottoms and crawled under his blankets. 

He had been excited all week. They promised him the world, and all he wanted was their companionship. He wanted their friendship and a good time, but that was too much for him to ask. His friends were becoming more and more self centered and shallow – almost as if they were reverting back to their own ways, but kept each other around for the ride.

He missed the days where they talked until they cried. They told each other their darkest secrets and everything that bothered them. Brian had confided in them about his suicide attempt. They were the only people he ever voluntarily offered such information to. He trusted them with every fiber of his being, and now he didn't understand why.

Allison had declared her loneliness. Andrew told them of his prison life where he was allowed no liberties. Bender had angrily proclaimed that he lived in a house with two abusive assholes who could give a shit less about him. Claire had informed them that she was nothing else but a mere pawn at home; the daughter of two people who had more money than they needed.

They all had so many problems and things that they hated about themselves…and they had gone to each other with those issues. It felt so good and liberating to have people to talk to like that.

But they weren't like that anymore.

He thought back to the old man that he had met on the sidewalk that night. He had nothing, and didn't appear to have anybody. The dinner that the five of them had taken for granted had been happily enjoyed by him, and he actually had the kindness to wish him a happy birthday and asked him what he had wished for.

What had he wished for?

He wanted his friends back. He didn't want the bickering to go anymore, and if anything, he wished for something – anything – that would help them to understand each other and be close again. He didn't care what it took to get there, but if he could have anything, a problem solving method would be his wish.

He cared about them that much – especially after what they had done that night – to waste a stupid birthday wish on them.

He wiped angrily at his watering eyes and turned over in his bed so that he could see out his window. The sky was clear for a March night, and for the first time in a long time he could see the stars. He wanted so badly just to look out there for his answer – but he knew it would never come.

He yawned and closed his eyes. Another tear fell down his cheek and he didn't bother to chase it away. "I wish that they would just learn their lesson."

* * *

The next morning, Brian woke to the sound of a shrill ringing. At first he thought that maybe it was a smoke detector or something, and that his house was burning down. He wiped the sleep from his eyes and sat up. He looked around the room after taking a few seconds to wake up, and noticed that something was totally wrong with the picture in front of him. 

His blankets were pink. His bed was pink. His walls were pink. There were more teddy bears on the other side of the room than he had ever seen in his whole life.

He swallowed hard and the ringing stopped. Where was he? He had never put any posters of Bon Jovi on his wall before, nor had he ever enjoyed the music of Heart. There was a huge shelving unit filled with novels, magazines, records, and movies of all sorts. There was a television set on a small night table at the end of the bed. Something really wasn't right.

He fingered the fabric of the silk covers, and finally noticed that he had nail polish on. In fact, his entire hand was manicured. He brought his hands in front of his face and realized he was also a hell of a lot whiter than normal. He crossed his arms over his chest subconsciously and noticed that something else was _horribly_ wrong.

He had boobs!

Before he could scream, a red headed man burst into his room with a very annoyed look on his face. "Claire, honey, that boyfriend of yours is on the phone! I told you and him already that 7:00 is way too early to be calling here! Take your call and start getting ready for school!" He closed the door and wandered down the hallway.

Brian, feeling way more emotional than usual, burst into tears; he had to have been dreaming! He was going to pick up the phone and Bender was going to be laughing his ass off and yelling 'April Fool's Day'…even though it was March. Bender was mean and always pulled pranks, he just knew that the big old bumhead was pulling his leg…he just…

"Hello?" He sniffled sadly.

"Brian? Listen, its Claire. You have to get ready and meet us in front of my house in like fifteen minutes, okay?"

That was _not_ Claire's voice. He had to have been dreaming! He had to have…

He hung up the phone and pulled the blankets over his head. He had no idea where all the tears were coming from suddenly, but he didn't care. He just cried. He felt like crap.

He had to go pee _really_ bad and he was too scared to pull his pants down.

_**TBC**_

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**A/N**: Have I ever told you people that I hate first chapters? I really hate first chapters. Stay tuned and it will get much better and way freakier! I know this idea has been done many times before and in many different fandoms, but please have faith in me, okay? This story will be 40 chapters long and there is plenty of excitement ahead! Thanks for reading, and please don't forget to review! 


	2. A Man's Life

**Title**: Reality Shift  
**Author**: TWBasketcase  
**Chapter Summary**: Claire wakes up to find that she has inhabited the body of her boyfriend. It's the face that she wakes up to that gives her an even bigger shock.  
**A/N**: Hey there! Glad that you guys liked the first chapter. I just want to state for the record that, yes, the two boys who end up in the girls' bodies will be more emotional than they usually are. That has everything to do with estrogen and nothing to do with them being OOC. So I don't want to hear that they are acting funny, capiche? In fact, you will find that there is a lot of identity confusion, so please be aware and prepared for that! Here is chapter 2, I hope that you enjoy!

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**Chapter 2 – A Man's Life**

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_Tuesday March 13, 1985_

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"Hey wake up!" A large hand found its way to her shoulder and she shrugged it off. 

"Not now, daddy!" She muttered sleepily and rolled back under the covers. It was a lot colder in her room than she remembered it being when she had gone to sleep. She wrapped them tighter around her body and snuggled into her pillow.

A loud scoff was heard. "If you ever sound that gay in my body again, I will not hesitate to punch my face." _What the fuck_?

She rolled over and looked at the direction that the annoyed voice was coming from. For some very strange reason, Andrew Clark was sitting on her bed. She squeaked and drew the covers closer to her body.

"Andy, get out! I only have a night gown on!" She squeezed her eyes shut and willed him away. "What are you doing in my room anyways?"

She felt the large hand on her again and she shivered. "Normally I would get a kick out of that, but not today. I need to know who you are…who are you?"

Now she was really confused. She lifted her hand to rake it through her hair when she realized that her hair just wasn't quite right. In fact, she was a lot heavier and bigger than she normally was. She had nightmares about getting extremely fat overnight and she was hoping it didn't come true!

"What the hell is going on?!" She exclaimed.

Andrew threw his hand over her mouth and gave her a frightened look. "First of all, if you are going to be staying here, you will NOT yell like that at six a.m.! You will get your damn teeth knocked out!" She narrowed her eyes and looked around the room.

"This is John's room…" She muttered. "What the hell am I doing here?"

Andrew pursed his lips together. "Okay, well now I at least now that you're Claire."

She bit her lip, which is way too chapped for her liking or tolerance. "Of course I am Claire! Why would you think otherwise, Andrew? What is going on here?"

Andrew looked to be growing increasingly frustrated. "Look, I am _not_ jock-strap! And you stole _my_ body, so I should be asking you the same question!"

Claire sprung from the ratty mattress and ran across the room to John's dresser, where an old mirror was screwed into the wall. When she stared into it, her eyes were not looking back at her. Instead, the large, dark eyes of her boyfriend stared helplessly. She had no idea what was going on.

"Wow, my ass really is nice. I've never really had the chance to see it from this vantage point." She looked at Andrew – or John, rather – as he had a finger perched on his chin and his eyes drifted down her – rather, his – body. "God, the frontal view is even better! They should make a statue of me!"

Claire looked down and noticed that she was completely ass naked. Her face burned and she ran for the covers of the bed. She could not believe she had just seen _his_ naked body like that! She dove for cover and hid her head under the pillows. "You just _had_ to sleep naked, didn't you?" She screamed at him.

He laughed at her. "Oh come on! I'm sure it wasn't that traumatizing! It's a work of art!"

"Shut up!" She yelled at him from under the pillow. She couldn't believe that he was so calm about this! "I am officially never taking my clothes off again! You will shower fully clothed from now on!"

He pulled the blankets down so that he could see her face. "I do have to shit, you know. Not only will you have to see my pecker then, but you will have to wipe my ass too!"

"Oh my god!" She groaned, smacking him in the arm. "Do you know how completely gross that is?"

He laughed. "Of course not! We all poop, you know, even princesses."

She growled. "How did you get in here anyways? Did anyone see you?" She tucked 'her' hair behind 'her' ear and settled back into the bed. He looked like he was in a joking mood on the surface, but his eyes spoke otherwise.

"You kiddin' me? I've lived in this place my whole life. I can get in and out of here without anyone hearin' just fine."

"Are we going to tell your family that I am living with them? What are we going to do? How did this happen?" She took a deep breath and bit her lip.

He perked an eyebrow at her. "No, you ain't going to tell no one here that you are me. Trust me, that's the last thing that you need. I don't know what the fuck we're gonna do, and I don't know why I look like an asshole all of a sudden. We're gonna have to ask Jeeves or something."

"Why don't you want to tell anyone? Maybe they can help?" She asked hopefully. Truthfully, her hope was waning by the second. She was beginning to realize that she was indeed awake, and that it wasn't a dream.

He glared at her. "You think my family wants to help you? They don't wanna even help me!"

"I'm sorry, it's just…this is just too much to handle." She replied sadly. She sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes and watched him expectantly. "I just don't know what to say."

He nodded his head. "Well, you just keep your nose outta everyone's business around here and you'll be fine. Stay away from the old man and don't talk to my mom." He rubbed his hands across his face and sighed. "And don't talk to James either."

"Your brother? Why?" She asked. She knew that the two boys were close and she knew that if anyone would get him out of a jam it would be his brother.

John rolled his eyes. "If someone could smell something off, it would be him. He can smell a rat a mile away. Just stay away from him, okay?"

"But maybe he can help…" She suggested, hopeful once more.

"Claire, he hates you. If he found out it was you – and not me – he would treat you like an intruder and chase your ass outta here so fast you would shit yourself. Just stay away from everyone around here, and don't ask anymore questions!" She could tell that he was getting annoyed now. She nodded her head and shut up. It was all so much to take in.

"Now, we gotta find out who is at your house. I'm not too sure how many people are all switched up…but all I do know is that you are here, and I was at asshole's house getting woken up by his shithead old man at 5:30 in the fuckin' morning!" He took a deep breath and pulled off the heavy lettermen's jacket and set it on the floor. "We know that Sporto is somewhere else too, and I gotta find him. So you need to get dressed so we can make some phone calls."

She nodded her head and wrapped a sheet around her torso. "Where are your clean clothes?" He pointed to a laundry basket next to his dresser. She nodded and grabbed a few shirts. "Where is your bathroom?"

He rolled his eyes. "You know, I've seen all that before. You can change in here."

She blushed, which she thought would probably look a bit silly on his face. "Well I do have to go to the bathroom and clean up." He rolled his eyes at her.

"Fine, but no homo bows in my hair. Turn right in the hallway and it's the next door on the left." He sat back in his chair.

Claire nodded and walked out of the bedroom, closing the door behind her. She could hear quiet music coming from downstairs, and a low snoring from down the hall. The noises made her heart rate speed up, and she quickened her pace to the washroom and locked the door behind her.

* * *

John sighed and lay down on his bed. He could not even believe that this shit was happening. His morning hadn't started off too great; he had almost shoved Mr. Clark's head in the toilet.

"_Rise and shine, champ! We need to get up and go for a jog!" The light in the bedroom had been flicked on. John groaned and rolled over. A strange, grey haired man was standing at the foot of his bed._

"_What the fuck?" He mumbled. He was definitely not in his bedroom, and immediately recognized it as Andrew's. What the hell was he doing in Andrew's house? The two boys definitely weren't known for their slumber parties._

"_You watch your mouth, son! There is no tolerance for that sort of language under my roof, and you damn well know it! Now get your ass outta bed!" The man turned on his heel and grumpily stomped out of the room._

_John was still hopelessly confused. He looked around the room and the first thing he noticed was the alarm clock on the night table. It read 5:32 a.m. Oh, he was definitely not a morning person! He threw the covers off of his body and stretched. That was when he noticed that he was definitely not himself that morning._

_The first sign: he was short. The second sign: He was wearing clothes. The third sign: he was blonde and ugly. He stared at himself in the mirror attached to the large dresser across the room. He was thinking John Bender thoughts in an ugly Andy-looking head. He took a deep breath and approached the dresser to find a shirt and some pants to wear._

_Once he was dressed, he made his way downstairs to the first floor of the house. Andrew's mother was standing at the stove frying up some bacon and eggs, while Mr. Clark sat at the kitchen table with a mug of coffee and the morning newspaper. Also at the table was Andy's little brother Nicky, and his older – and very hot – sister, Annette._

"_Good morning, honey," Mrs. Clark announced to who she thought was Andrew, cheerily._

_He nodded at her politely and took a seat at the table with 'his' siblings. Annette said nothing to him and kept reading through what looked to be a text book. Nicky smiled at him._

"_Hi Andy!" He was kicking his legs under the table and grinning a toothy smile._

_Bender held back his disgust for children and smiled back. "Hey kid."_

"_Are we going to watch the Muppets today?" He shoveled some of his Fruity Pebbles into his mouth, splashing some milk down his chin._

_John scratched his head. "Uh, when is that?"_

_Everyone in the kitchen stopped to stare at him as if he grew another head. Immediately he realized that Andy must have a secret Muppet love, and that John had screwed up. He cleared his throat and smiled at the younger boy. "Just kidding, buddy. Sure, I'll be there."_

_The kid's frown dripped off of his face and was replaced with a bright smile. "Awesome! Hopefully they play one with the Pigs in Space!"_

_John grinned and thought of the only Muppet that he knew of. "Yeah and I hope they show Animal too."_

"_You love it when Animal plays drums in Electric Mayhem, don't you?" John inwardly cheered at picking a good one and smiled. _

"_Yeah, we'll see." _

"_Andrew you have running to do." Mr. Clark stated. "When are you gonna grow out of those silly shows and get your ass in gear? Enough of egging Nicky on."_

_John frowned at the man. "Dude, we were just chilling out. I don't wanna run anyways."_

_The older man's eyebrows rose. "Excuse me, young man? You will do what I tell you to do and there won't be another peep out of your mouth. And don't you dare call me 'dude'. Get your ass in gear."_

_John glared at him. "I said I ain't feelin' well."_

"_I don't give a rat's ass if you're bleeding out the asshole! Go get changed!"_

"_Tony!" Mrs. Clark yelled, pointing a spatula at him. "There is a flu going around! I'm sure he can miss running for one morning." She turned back to the stove and shoveled the bacon on to the plates._

"_Sheila, the boy needs to get into shape! He has a meet in less than two weeks that he needs to be prepared for. He can't afford to come in second this time! He has to place first…all the scouts will be there!" He looked exasperated. Bender thought he was going to have a coronary right there._

"_He is in great shape! You lay off for one morning and let him be." She placed some plates in front of Tony, John, and Annette, and returned to the kitchen. John looked back at Andrew's father who was glaring at him._

"_Don't make a habit out of this, you slacker. This is bullshit Andrew, even for you." The older man began piling food into his mouth without looking at him again._

_For not being Andrew, that sure did make John feel like shit. He wanted to scream and throw a temper tantrum at the older man, but he figured that was out of character for Andrew. He figured the best thing to do would be to take Andy's Bronco and get over to his house and see who was waiting for him there._

"Wow, I don't think I've ever seen you so deep in thought, maybe you're better off with Andrew." Claire joked. She dumped John's sheet back onto his bed and folded her – his – arms over her chest.

John nearly jumped in his seat when she came in. He glared and rolled his eyes. "Yeah and look like shit the rest of my life? No thanks."

"You don't like being well toned?" She joked again.

"Well at least your picking up my sense of humor," he deadpanned. He subconsciously tried to shake his hair out of his face, but forgot that it was no longer there. "Okay, there is a phone at the bottom of the stairs. It is the only phone we have in the house, so it has a really long phone cord, and a really long receiver cord. Bring the phone up the stairs and into this room."

She stared at him. "Are you sure it's long enough?"

He rolled his eyes. "No, I don't live here! I have no fuckin' clue!"

She glared at him and once again left the room. He heard her quickly pad down the stairs, and then just as quickly come back up again. He could tell that she was scared shitless and it made him feel ashamed. She didn't need to be trying to live under the Bender roof. Even a dick like Andy didn't deserve such treatment. He just hoped that she would be able to keep out of the old man's way. Not only that, but there were quite a few other assholes that expected some business from him this week.

He could only hope they traded back before she would have to find out about that.

She came back into the room and placed the phone down on the floor. He nodded his head at her. "Okay, now call your house."

She took a deep breath. "My dad is going to get so mad!"

John cracked a grin at her. "I know. He always does."

She rolled her eyes and dialed the numbers that he knew by heart and lifted the receiver to her ear. After a few moments, someone had picked up.

"Uh, yeah can I talk to Claire?" She covered her mouth to keep from laughing. He almost laughed at the situation himself, but watching his own body act that giddy kind of weirded him out a little.

"I know that, but it really is important, sir." She paused for a moment, and her face contorted. "But my dog died, and I really want to talk to her!" She protested. "Yes…thank you. I won't do it again." She paused once more before bursting with laughter. "I promise!"

"My dog died?" he asked, amused.

She put her hand over the speaker and glared at him. "Shut up! I needed to say something! He was going to hang up on me. I never realized how rude he was to you!" She removed her hand quickly.

She listened for a moment before speaking. She made a very confused face. "Brian?" Pause. "This is Claire. I need you to meet us in front of my house in fifteen minutes, okay?" Without saying any more, she hung up the phone.

He perked an eyebrow at her. "How did you know that was Brian?"

She smiled a little. "He was sniffling."

Bender snorted at that. "How does that not surprise me?" He shook his head and looked around the room. "We can't go to school today until we are able to figure out what the fuck we're gonna do."

Claire nodded in agreement. "Well we can't all just skip, we'll get detention!"

Bender smirked. "Well, you have detention anyways, so that doesn't really matter for you." Before she could protest that fact, he continued. "Besides, we're not going to skip. We're going to call in sick."

"For all five of us?" Claire asked confusedly.

Bender rolled his eyes. "Well no. We won't have to for you or Allison…whoever the hell was sorry enough to end up in her body. They won't give a shit if we aren't there. Just for me, Brian, and you - your body. You now have a guy's voice…who's daddy do you want to be?" He wiggled his eyebrows.

She glared at him. "No one's. I'll call in for Brian." She picked up the phone and began dialing the number to Shermer High school.

It was going to be a damn long day and there was no way in hell he was spending it in school.

_**TBC**_

* * *

**A/N**: Okay, so there is John and Claire! So as a refresher, Brian is in Claire's body, Claire's in John's, and John is in Andrew's. I'm sure you can figure out the other two, who will be making their appearance in chapter 3. I hope you enjoyed! Please review! 


	3. Wildest Dreams Come True

**Title**: Reality Shift  
**Author**: TWBasketcase  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own John Lennon's songs.  
**Chapter Summary**: Allison seems to be more amused and curious than anything; she investigates her surroundings. Andrew wakes up the happiest man in the world.

**A/N 1: **I tried looking this information up, but I couldn't find it. I included a radio alarm clock in this chapter, and I am not sure whether or not they were around then? I am hoping that they were or I will feel like a knob. Just ignore me if I am right, if I am wrong and you know this piece of info, please inform me, okay?**  
A/N 2**: Expect a bit more humor in this chapter; it will be a lot more light hearted than the first two. I'm glad you guys like it so far!

* * *

**Chapter 3 – Wildest Dreams Come True**

* * *

"…Imagine no possessions/I wonder if you can/No need for greed or hunger/a brotherhood of man/Imagine all the people/Sharing all the world…" 

Andy slammed his hand down on the radio alarm clock and rubbed his eyes. He was having such a nice dream too! He imagined himself on a warm beach, under the sun. He was lying with Allison on a great big Muppets towel, and the wind was blowing through their hair. They were laughing and telling jokes to each other; then he remembered that they went to second base. Everything was going great because they had only gone all the way two times.

They rolled around a bit in the sand until he was lying on top of her, and they were laughing. The wind was blowing her hair across her face, and he was trying his best to tuck it back. She smiled up at him and said. "I want you to ride me hard!"

He was in heaven.

She was only wearing a two piece black swimsuit. They were kissing each other fiercely, but the farthest that they got was him caressing her breasts – over the top – before his dream had ended.

He frowned, but felt pretty good about the dream. Feeling just a bit unfullfilled, he lay back down in his bed and decided to finish the job himself. He got cozy and slipped his hand down his pants.

And then he got the shock of a life time.

He shot up so fast that he had fallen off the bed in a tangled heap of bed sheets. Everywhere he looked was the plaid design of the sheets; around his arms, between his legs, around his face, and over his head. He ripped it all off as fast as he could, and looked down at himself one more time.

He definitely did not have a penis anymore.

He started laughing. Whenever he was scared or nervous, he laughed. He just couldn't help it. He fell on the floor and laughed until there were tears pouring from his eyes. It was also obvious to him that the laughter emanating from his throat did not belong to him, but it still sounded eerily familiar. He pulled himself from the floor and took a look around the room.

He was in Allison's room.

Sure, it was a room that he had woken up in before; it was also a room that he frequently hung out in, but that morning it was very unfamiliar. When he usually was in Allison's room, Allison was with him. That morning however, the only company that he had was Sgt. Pepper, Allison long haired tabby cat.

Her bedroom was fairly large. Besides her bed and dresser, there wasn't any furniture in the room. However, it was full of junk. Clothes were strewn everywhere around the room, including on the dresser, falling out of the drawers and closet, the floors, and even her bed. She had posters of various bands and celebrities, photos of random things, and paintings done by her and other people, tacked all over the walls. She also had the biggest novel and record collection that he had ever seen. He was quite aware that she stole most of her stuff, but he tried not to let that bother him. He knew that at least some of her belongings were gifts from him, even if it was only a small percentage of the things that she did own.

He stepped over the mess and made his way towards her door, which led to the back hallway of her house. When he opened it up, he immediately shivered; he wrapped his arms around his now small torso and made his way to the bathroom. Like usual, the house was cold and quiet. Her parents were rarely home – and he didn't even really know what they did for a living – and she had no siblings. He couldn't help but feel just a little put off by the silence; he was used to a loud and busy house.

He closed the wooden door behind him and immediately made his way to the large bathroom counter where the mirror was located on the wall above it. What he saw was remarkable.

Allison's face.

He lifted his hands up to her cheeks and rubbed his fingers over them. Just by the soft, delicate skin that he felt underneath of his fingertips, he knew immediately that it was no dream or joke. He was really stuck in her body. Although, stuck was a word that made the whole situation sound like a bad thing. He grinned and thought of the possibilities.

He took a deep breath and pulled his pants down to go to the bathroom. It felt rather strange to him that he had to sit down to pee, but he was sure that the comfort came with time. He finished and pulled up his pants, and then immediately figured out why girls go through so much damn toilet paper. He walked awkwardly towards the shower and turned it on.

While he was waiting for the water to heat up, he ran quickly back to Allison's room in search of new clothes to wear. Like a kid in a candy store, he grinned maniacally when he opened her underwear drawer and just sifted through the possibilities.

What he saw almost killed him and sent him to heaven.

Who knew that his gothic-like girlfriend had such good taste in undergarments? He lifted a pair of lacy red and black panties and a matching bra and tucked them under his arm. Going through her clothes was worse than trying to find his way around China Town in Chicago. He settled on a tight white tank top and a form fitting pair of jeans. He figured that Allison would probably kill him for ever making her look this way, but he saw the opportunity and there was no way in hell that he was going to pass it up! He tucked 'his' outfit underneath his arm and ran off to the bathroom.

At that particular moment in time he was damn glad that he had seen his girlfriend naked before. She would probably either a) have a hairy fit on him for looking at her without her permission, or b) run away and never come back. She was pretty shy that way. He hoped that Allison could trust him not to ever humiliate her though, that was the last thing he would ever do to her.

Exploring his new surroundings, however, should be acceptable enough.

He pulled her nightshirt over his head, and pulled off the pair of shorts that she had on. He stood completely naked in the bathroom and had never been more turned on in his life. He pumped his fist in the air happily, and got into the hot shower.

* * *

Allison stood in front of the bathroom mirror with an amused smirk played across her face. It wasn't really her face, but that was the whole reason she was smirking in the first place. 

It was Brian's face. Brian her innocent and loveable good friend.

She remembered reading a book when she was eleven called _Freaky Friday _when a mom and her spunky daughter had switched bodies so that they could get closer or something like that. She thought that the book was so fun that after she was finished with it, she pretended to be someone else for a few weeks afterwards.

She always wanted the chance to be someone else for a day.

She looked down at Brian's flannel pajamas and wondered what in his mind compelled him to wear the things. They had blue cuffs at the wrists and ankles, and thin blue stripes that ran vertically. Floating between all those cute little stripes were trucks; construction trucks to be exact. She perked an eyebrow up and looked back in the mirror.

She was wasting her time. She had to get into the shower, and she wanted to do so without prying into Brian's personal space. Sure, if someone was in her body she would want to be clean too, but would she appreciate the prying eyes of a _stranger_? She closed her eyes and pulled down her pants and took off her shirt, and quickly got into the shower.

She found that there were all sorts of funny bathroom stickers stuck along the wall. They were obviously there for the kids in the family; the stickers were in the shape of baby Disney characters. She glued her eyes to the sticker on the far end of the tub and kept them there. She quickly washed her hair (which was strange because Brian had so little of it compared to her) and even faster she washed her body. She turned off the faucets – with her eyes never leaving the sticker – and climbed out of the tub to dry off.

Once she was dressed, which was just a little bit off from Brian's normal apparel, she wandered downstairs to where she could smell waffles cooking. It had been a long time since she had homemade waffles because he parents never bothered waking her with a nice breakfast. She was their bastard child resulted from a one night stand at the age of seventeen. Her parents had always been bitter towards her. Breakfast was something she never really got the chance to miss.

"What on earth is that, young man?" Allison shot her eyes up in front of her and noticed that Mrs. Johnson was standing at the bottom of the stairs with her hands on her hips and a cooking apron on. She was frowning – deeply – and shooting her that disapproving glance that Allison had come so familiar with when visiting Brian.

She was about to squeak in protest and run back up unto his room, but figured that his mom would definitely know something was up. She took a deep breath; her usual muteness or witty remarks would hold no ground with the older woman.

"What are you talking about?" She asked as politely as she could.

She raised her eyebrows and pointed at her. "That thing you call a shirt. Why are you wearing that? And your pants don't even match, Brian Ralph! Go upstairs and get changed."

Allison looked down at her choice of clothes. She had on a white t-shirt, with a red collar and sleeves, with a big _Jaws_ logo on it. Her pants were only a simple pair of blue jeans. "What's wrong with it?"

Then she looked raging pissed. "What do you mean 'what's wrong with it?' Brian, those clothes are unacceptable for school. Put on something a little nicer, you look like a slob."

Allison bit her lip and then undid her jeans so that she could tuck her shirt in. Once done, she smiled brightly. "Is this better?"

"No." She said firmly and walked back into the kitchen. Allison was stumped; she couldn't for the life of her figure out what looked so bad about a t-shirt and jeans. She was used to total freedom, not house rules.

"Can I at least wear the jeans?" She called, louder than she was used to.

"Fine, but you better put on your best sweater!" She heard from the kitchen. Allison rolled her eyes and ran back up the stairs towards Brian's room. His room was always in such pristine condition. All of his t-shirts, shorts and underwear were folded neatly and organized in his dresser. All of his pants and sweaters hung up in his closet to prevent wrinkles. She strode over to the closet and opened it up. When it came to interesting sweaters, she was shit out of luck; although, she did quite enjoy Brian's secret collection of cool nerd t-shirts with various sci-fi movies presented on them. She smiled at the thought and grabbed the darkest sweater that she could find, and pulled it on over her head. She grabbed his backpack from the floor as well, and disappeared back down the stairs.

Her breakfast was already waiting for her when she entered the kitchen. Mrs. Johnson was now washing the used pans, and Brian's younger sister, Mary, was eating her waffles happily at the table.

"Good morning," Allison announced. She didn't know what else to say to them.

"Hi Brian," The little girl replied.

"Mary, get your elbows off the table and sit up straight." She placed the last frying pan in the dish rack and dried her hands on a tea towel. "That's better Brian. I don't know why you even bother with those silly t-shirts."

Allison picked up her knife and fork and began to cut into her food. "I like them."

"Me too!" Mary announced, and once more leaned her face on her hand. She had syrup dribbling down her chin. "I think they make Brian look cool, mom."

"Sit up Mary! I am not going to ask you again!" The older woman scolded, and disregarded her daughter's statement. Allison watched as the little girl just rolled her eyes at the older woman and continued eating her food messily.

"Do you have a physics club meeting tonight that you need to be picked up from?" Mrs. Johnson asked.

Allison hesitated and then looked back at Brian's mom. "No."

She perked an eyebrow and came to join them at the table. "Why not? I thought they always occurred on Tuesday afternoons?"

Allison was at a loss for an answer. "Well…Mr. Dempsey's wife finally had her baby, so he cancelled the meeting for this week…and next week." She concluded.

She stared at her for a moment. "I can understand this week, but why next week?"

Allison blinked and quickly took a large bite of her waffle. "He has to baby-sit…his…baby."

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Brian." She folded her hands on the table and sighed. "So he is canceling a meeting because he can't find another baby-sitter?"

"Yes," Allison said quickly, and then took a large drink of her milk. "Silly, isn't it?" She didn't like the penetrating stare that Brian's mom gave her. She knew full well that she didn't mean anything bad by it, but she just wasn't used to someone looking at her like that. No wonder Brian was scared of her.

"Well at least now I don't have to pick you up," She concluded the conversation and rose from her seat, taking Mary's dishes from her. "Now I can work on supper all day with no interruptions."

Mary got down from the table and requested that her mother help her wash her hands in the kitchen sink. Allison took the last bite of her waffle and set her utensils down. "Why do you need all day to fix dinner?"

Mrs. Johnson looked at her strangely. "I'm making roast beef for your birthday dinner, Brian. Or did you forget your own birthday?"

Allison chuckled nervously. "No, of course not." Inwardly, she gagged at the sound of roast beef. She didn't like red meat at all. In fact, she hadn't eaten red meat for over seven years. She hoped to god that she could somehow get out of it.

"You should go get ready for school," Mrs. Johnson stated without looking at her. Allison only nodded and dropped her plate off at the sink.

* * *

Andy finished brushing Allison's hair back and looked at his handiwork. He was damn good at what he did! Her hair was pulled back with a blue headband, and he had applied some light brown eye shadow on her eyes, as well as a small bit of black mascara, and tan colored eyeliner. He would have thought that dressing like a girl would be that easy? 

He spun in a circle in the mirror and admired himself – rather his girlfriend. He walked out into the hallway wondering what to get for breakfast. Physically, he wasn't very hungry at all, but mentally he felt as though he needed to eat a horse.

"Hello?" He called out. Of course, no one had replied. He shrugged his shoulders and continued to make his way towards the kitchen.

He could smell cigarette smoke in the house. It wasn't something that he was very accustomed to living around, so understandably, it bothered his nose. He also noticed how clean the house was. In order for his house to be clean, his mother had to spend the whole day slaving away at the chores. However, he knew full well that Allison's parents were never home; hell, he wasn't even sure if they were aware of the hairy kitty cat Allison had that threatened the spotless house.

There was also artwork everywhere. Paintings from famous artists and strange looking statues; it gave the house the feel of a decorated museum…look but don't touch.

It was very cold and there wasn't much of a loving feel to the house.

He continued to the kitchen. One thing that he always found very strange was that the Reynolds' didn't have a kitchen table. They had a small wooden dining room table in the other room, but they didn't have a cozy kitchen table that fit into their food station. It looked really bare.

He opened the fridge and was extremely disappointed at the little amount of food that was in it. The only thing that looked appetizing was the brown bag that read 'The Rosebud'. It was Allison's doggy bag from the previous night. He grinned and took the bag from the fridge.

However, his smile fell flat when he was suddenly reminded of why he never shared lunches with his girlfriend.

Her salad concoction that she had created at the restaurant sat unfinished in the bowl. It reeked like something fierce, and Andy immediately tossed it back in the fridge, waving a hand over his nose. He sighed and settled with an apple.

He was ready to settle down in front of the television when he heard a horn blaring from outside. Curious, he got up to see what it was.

Of course, it had to be some total stranger blaring on the horn of his poor Bronco…and blaring hideously disturbing music from his expensive stereo speakers. He winced and grabbed Allison's coat and quickly ran outside without locking the door behind him.

* * *

"I cannot believe that he made me look like that!" Allison shrieked as Andy ran out the door. His – rather, her – appearance sent the rest of the vehicle into hysterics. Allison could only roll her eyes and sit back in her seat. 

"Is that you, Bender?" Andy yelled as he opened the passenger side door, motioning Claire to sit in the back.

"You know, I am bigger than you now!" She shrieked at him.

"Allison or Claire?" Andy asked her suspiciously.

"I'm so not moving from this seat!" She spat back at him.

Bender winced. "Okay, how many times do I have to tell you, cherry? NO valley girl talk while in my body, you got that?"

Andy glared at Claire. "Get in the back. I'm not afraid to hit Bender's face, remember that." Claire only sighed overdramatically and got in the back seat. Andy stared at his own body. "I don't give a shit who I have to be mean to, but as long as your sorry ass has control over my body I am keeping an eye on you!"

Bender raised his hands in defense. "Can it, Sporto. I haven't even done anything worth my while yet."

Andy rolled his eyes and looked in the back seat. "I can't even believe this! Are we all switched?"

Brian, who looked like Claire, nodded somberly. "Unfortunately."

Andy nodded. "So who is who?"

Claire rolled her eyes. "I am Claire." She pointed to Brian's body. "That is your girlfriend."

Andy frowned. "No offence, Brian, but that is extremely disturbing."

Brian shrugged. "None taken; don't worry." He just looked miserable. Everyone knew to steer clear of Claire when she was depressed, but Brian just made it look ten times worse in his eyes.

"So where are we going?" Andy asked.

"It is so weird seeing her talk so damn much. It's too bad though, usually she has good things to say…" Bender muttered, earning a weak punch from Andy.

"We're going to go sit somewhere and figure all of this out," Claire replied from the back. She looked over to Brian. "Sorry, no school today."

_**TBC**_

* * *

**A/N**: Ha! So there it is! We have seen everyone. So just as a refresher – in case anyone is confused – Brian is Claire. Claire is Bender. Bender is Andrew. Andrew is Allison. Allison is Brian. I also just want to say that yes, they are hiding their identities from their families. Therefore, they have to act as normal as possible when with the other person's family. So once again, please don't label everyone as OOC because of that. If you do, I will smack you. Just please remember to keep in mind that this could potentially turn into a major identity crisis and things will be strange. That being said, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and please, please, please don't forget to review! I get sad when you do that. :( Until next time!  
**A/N 2:** I have been majorly busy over the holidays! I had this chapter written three weeks ago, but I didn't have time to post. Also, if I haven't read and/or reviewed any of your stories, be patient and I will find the time to do so. I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Speaking of which, I also have a New Year's one shot coming up as well. Look out for all my stuff and/or add me to your alerts! 


	4. Taking One for the Team

**Title**: Reality Shift  
**Author**: TWBasketcase  
**Rated T** for language, violence, and drugs, as well as some awkward nudity/sexual situations  
**Chapter Summary**: The group gets together and explains to one another everything that they need to know to walk their shoes for awhile. Andrew has a huge wrestling meet, Brian has a big birthday dinner to attend, Claire has to help put on a political campaign party, Allison has an art show, and Bender has a big meeting with a big time drug dealer - whom he owes a lot of money. Things get a bit stressful for the group.  
**A/N**: Thanks for all of your wonderful reviews so far! I am glad that you guys are having fun and enjoying it! I hope you enjoy this as well, and don't forget to keep the feedback coming! Thank you.

* * *

**Chapter 4 - Taking One for the Team**

* * *

Bender took the group past the school at about a half hour before it was slated to start classes that morning. They had decided to go out to the suburb of Northbrook and have breakfast together to give them the opportunity to digest their situation, and to figure out each other's lives, families, and other situations. They had remained silent for most of the trip to the restaurant, but it unfortunately also gave them the opportunity to think about just how screwed they were.

Living life behind someone else's eyes really wasn't as appealing as it sounded.

Brian couldn't even think of how many times that he had wished that he was someone else; after many years of being picked on and ridiculed, it was natural for him to think such thoughts. He wasn't a person who was known for his self-confidence, but he was known for having a runaway imagination. He was now stuck in another person's body, and he wasn't too sure that it was all that appealing.

The fact that he was stuck in Claire Standish's body made it all the more horrifying; he felt like he was violating her just by looking in the mirror. Not only was there the issue of him having to go to the bathroom in her body, he would have to worry about changing and showering, fitting in with her family, dealing with her friends, and making her look decent enough to go out in public. Her life was just way to hectic and dramatic for a kid like him!

On top of the worries of dealing with Claire's situation, he was more than worried about his own. As it turned out, Allison had been transferred into his body, and he couldn't have thought that was worse - unless of course it was Bender in his body. Allison and Brian had two totally differing personalities and opinions which Brian thought would make it increasingly difficult for Allison to remain undercover and not screw things up for him.

He had grades to maintain, college applications, his family, his responsibilities, the Physics Club…he had all of that to worry about, and Allison sure didn't know anything about keeping those up! Allison had total freedom in her home, no academic responsibility, or social gatherings to worry about. If anything, Allison could make him look like a freak! He didn't want to think such thoughts about someone that he considered a friend, but it was in his nature to panic about such things!

Allison was a smart girl; she had street savvy, creativity, sass, and she was a very good analyzer and observer. Allison also had style and no fear when it came to reputations and public opinion. All of those qualities were qualities that he very much enjoyed about her, but on the other hand, were qualities that he didn't deem very acceptable for his own body; those qualities could lead him into some very deep trouble if she wasn't careful!

At the same time, he could see the same trouble arising with him being in Claire's body. Claire was very sophisticated, fashion savvy, mature, feminine, and graceful; five things that Brian Johnson was not. He knew that Claire cared very much for the way she looked and the way others perceived her, and that fact scared Brian a lot. His biggest fear and pet peeve was failure, so the thought of failing his friend devastated him.

He wasn't entirely sure what sort of consequence the situation would have on their friendships, and in some cases relationships, with each other. Brian had a gut feeling that maybe his little birthday wish had something to do with it.

_He wished for something – anything – that would help them to understand each other and be close again._

"_I wish that they would just learn their lesson."_

His words - in his opinion - had been rather harsh. His birthday had not even been close to how he planned it to be; in fact, it would be safe to say that the entire night had been a disaster for them. The fact that he had been so excited and happy that they wanted to do something, and the let down that he got afterwards was definitely what caused him to mutter such things. Of course, he really did want their relationships to be good again - and yes he wanted them to understand one another again - but was the process worth it?

Better yet, would it be safe to tell the others that their predicament may in fact be his fault?

He was hoping to god that that runaway imagination of his was what was causing him to have such thoughts. Hell, maybe he wasn't responsible at all and he was just being paranoid. He hoped so anyways.

"We're here," Allison - err, Andy - muttered from the seat as he unbuckled his seatbelt. The rest of the group followed suit as Bender turned off the ignition, and they all piled out of the vehicle.

Once they got inside and were seated, an awkward silence overcame the table. It was fairly obvious that everyone was sizing their own bodies up - maybe out of self consciousness, or fear, or curiosity, Brian wasn't sure.

"So are you all ready to order now?" A male waiter approached the table. He had jet black hair, and dark beady eyes; he was extremely tall and way too skinny for his height.

"I'll have a stack of pancakes," Brian started, but before he could finish, Claire cleared her throat and spoke the deep voice of John Bender.

"Uh, I don't think so. You don't need pancakes. I think you should order a salad." She stared directly at Brian's eyes, with Bender's menacing glare. Brian could only scoff at the order.

"I can't eat salad for breakfast! I'll starve!" He sank in his seat and paused. "Can I eat an omelet?"

Claire hesitated before shrugging her shoulders. "No bacon and low fat cheese!"

Brian looked back up towards the waiter and smiled politely. "Make it a western." The waiter only gave him a sympathetic look before leaning down and whispering in Brian's ear.

"You know, you don't have to take that kind of abuse from your boyfriend. There are plenty of guys out there that would treat you right, you know." Brian snorted in laughter; naïve to the waiter's flirting.

"Oh, he's not my boyfriend. That's just my friend!" He smiled brightly at the tall boy.

The waiter's smile widened. "Well in that case, can I give you my number?"

Brian felt his face pale as Andy and Bender - in Allison and Andy's bodies respectfully - starting cracking up at him. Brian stammered on his words. "Uh…well, um, maybe I…um…"

Claire glared at John and Andrew and put her hands sweetly under her chin. "Go for it, Claire…he _is_ totally cute. I would take his number."

John instantly stopped laughing and growled at his body. "Back off of it!"

The waiter only gave Claire a disgusted look. "Um, sorry…I like…um, girls…"

"But I!" Claire stopped herself and just slouched in her seat. "Whatever."

The rest of the group ordered their meals without protest, although Allison gave Andrew a concerned look when he ordered two full meals for himself. Brian was pretty sure that with Allison's body Andrew would not even be able to fit down a half of his meal, but that was just his opinion.

"I can't believe you just hit on that guy! You're a homo!" Bender exclaimed to Claire. "My body does _not_ get boners over guys, so don't even fuckin' try it, Cherry!"

Claire rolled his eyes. "God, you laughed as though you couldn't believe anyone would hit on me!"

"He hit on _Brian_!" John yelled, exasperatedly.

Claire glared at him. "Which was really my body that he liked, not Brian's!"

"Hey!" Brian defended.

"Okay guys, I think we should settle down now so we don't draw any attention to ourselves." Andy interrupted.

"Whatever, I just want to make it clear that there will be no flamer activity in my body. Claire, if you wanna fuck a chick, then you can."

"What!" Claire screeched. "You think I would make you cheat on me! Are you insane?"

"And do you think she would lose her virginity with a girl, John?" Brian laughed at the thought.

Bender looked unimpressed. "For one, that body is not a virgin, so it wouldn't see anything it hasn't seen before. And two, I'm perfectly okay with the thought of Claire fucking a girl."

They all just stared at him for a few moments before settling down again. Brian was not only surprised that John had a brain in Andrew's body, but that he had a brain _at all_ sometimes.

* * *

When the food finally arrived at the table, Andrew smiled. It was strange because mentally he felt really, really hungry, but now that the food was at the table he felt that he may have ordered way too much for Allison's smaller body to handle. He sighed and began to eat anyways.

After a few moments, he looked up at Bender and cleared his throat. "We have a bit of a problem."

Bender perked his eyebrow with a piece of bacon sticking out of his mouth. "What?"

Andrew put his fork down and wiped his lips. "I have a huge wrestling meet coming up in less than two weeks."

Bender shrugged and popped another piece of meat into his mouth. "So what? I'll just pretend to be sick so I don't mess your shit up. No big deal."

Andy sighed irritably. "It _is_ a big deal, John! This is the biggest match of the year, and all of the university scouts are going to be there looking for scholarship applicants! It's my only chance of getting into a good school without student loans!"

"And how the hell do you expect me to win shit all, Sporto? I'm a fuckin' smoker and I've never rolled around with a boy before!" John was equally as irritated, but kept piling food into his mouth as though he hadn't eaten in months.

Andy rolled his eyes. "Those lungs are not smoker's lungs, and don't even think about making them that way either! My body is physically fit; you just have to go to my wrestling practices and gym classes to get your mind into it."

John gave him a doubtful look. "Look, Sporto, I don't think that I can do that shit. If I go to your gym class and hang out with a bunch of jock straps, I'll just end up kicking someone's face in."

Andrew felt his desperation and frustration kicking in. "Bender, you have to! How would you feel if Claire totally screwed up your life just because she didn't feel like doing something?" Andy tucked Allison's hair behind his ears and sighed. "How would _you_ feel? This is so important to me…you can't just screw it up!"

John took a bite out of a piece of his toast and shrugged. "I'll do what I can, but I can't promise you no gold medal!"

Allison nodded in agreement. "He's right, Andy. You can't expect too much from him."

Andy almost glared at Allison for not agreeing with him. "But it's important!"

Allison rolled her eyes. "Yeah, and you try running your normal laps in my body and see if it's possible for you!" Her - well Brian's - eyes were pleading with him to stop and he could only sigh and lower his head.

"Fair enough, but Bender, you have to promise to try." Andy conceded. "You know, if you don't you won't just have me on your ass, but my dad and my coach too. They'll ride you so hard you'll wanna snap."

Bender looked around the table at the rest of the group and just shrugged. "Fine, fine…I'll run around in a couple of circles, do some fuckin' push ups, and throw some fairies around. No big deal."

"Almost every school scout in the country will be there," Brian pointed out. "That's a lot of pressure."

Bender only shrugged at that and piled some more eggs into his mouth. Andy sighed and dug around in Allison's bag for a piece of paper. He came across a spiral notebook and a sharpie marker and smiled. "Anything in here you don't want me to see?" He asked her.

She looked unfazed. "Does that matter at this point?"

Andy shrugged. "I guess not." He flipped open to a blank page and wrote down a few names on it, a couple of times, and a few household chores. He passed the paper to Bender. "Those are the names of my family members. The little one is my brother, Nicky, and there's my older sister, Annette. You've already met them though. My dad's name is Tony, my mom is Sheila. I have physiotherapy I have to go to twice a week with Dr. Morton. I also train with two guys who usually pick me up; their names are Chris and Jack." He straightened up in the chair and watched as Bender let it all sink in. "My coach is Coach Waters, and I have wrestling practices Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at second lunch period. The rest of the stuff on there are the chores that I am expected to have done before every Friday."

Bender's eyes scanned up and down the paper a few times. "Well this should be interesting."

"I know it seems like a lot, but…"

"No, I mean living with your sister. She's hot, man! Have you ever checked out the rack on her?" He almost drooled on himself.

"John!" yelled everyone at the table simultaneously. He rolled his eyes and ate - yet again - some more food.

Claire could only glare at him. "You need to take this a little more seriously! Andy's entire future is on the line here, and you could screw it all up!"

"You think I don't know that, Cherry?" Bender yelled back. Andy almost inwardly laughed at the sight of his body calling Bender's cherry, but knew to keep it in check. He swallowed hard and sighed.

"Listen John, you just do what you can, okay."

John nodded. "Who knows, maybe I'll enjoy the tights?"

* * *

Allison ate silently away at her French toast and mustard. She was seriously scared for Andy; he had been training and working so hard at the upcoming tournament, and now it could all be for nothing. She knew how much it meant to him, and she was scared that he would lose something sacred.

"And while we are on the subject of catching up," Brian cleared his throat and eyed Allison. "Maybe I should inform you of _my_ responsibilities."

Allison wiped the mustard from Brian's lips and set her napkin down on her plate. "Shoot."

Brian swiped the notebook from Andy, and began to write down his own set of notes. "First of all, I live with one sister and both my parents - which I know you know, but, uh….I just wanted to remind you. My mom's name is Diane, my dad is Ralph, and my little sister's name is…"

"Mary," Allison cut him off with a nod. "I met her this morning. She is a messy eater."

Brian blushed a little. "Yeah well, don't mind her, okay? She's only six, and…"

"It's fine…" Allison cut him off once more. "Don't worry about it."

"Okay," Brian replied with a smile. "Tonight I have a birthday dinner with my grandparents. They come from Evanston. They don't like my mom at all, and they usually argue a lot. They are very serious Catholics, so you're going to have to watch what you do or say around them…they can be, uh, pretty strict, you know."

Allison nodded. "Will I have to eat the roast beef?" She was dreading the prospect of eating a slab of cow. The thought absolutely disgusted her.

Brian made a sympathetic face. "Unfortunately, yes. I'm really sorry about it, but things will just get ugly if you don't…" Allison cut him off with a disgusted grunt. Brian cleared his throat. "Okay well, just so you know I have physics club meetings on Tuesday after school, Latin and Math on Fridays at lunch and after school." He stopped when he caught sight of Allison's unimpressed face and sighed. "But you don't have to go if you don't want to."

Allison released a deep breath and smiled. "Thanks."

"Other then that you just have to watch Mary for an hour after school everyday until my mom gets home from work. The number for her job is on the fridge…she works at a nursing home in Northbrook. Um, you have to take care of the dog and the hamster - which I'm sure you won't mind, you know, because you like animals and all…" He chuckled nervously at himself and passed her off the finished paper. "You just have to do two hours of homework a night, and that's about it."

Allison looked over the paper with a straight and bored looking face. "Is there anything else that you do…anything that's a little more up my alley?" She thought that Brian's life was pretty structured and straight forward, but at the same time totally different than hers.

He smiled at her sheepishly. "Well I, uh…I kinda have to…you know, see a - a…"

"Spit it out, dork!" Bender butted in angrily. "God, I hate it when you do that!"

Brian blushed. "I have to see a therapist every Friday night at 6:00."

Allison cocked an eyebrow at him. "Why do you have to see a shrink?"

"How long has that been going on?" Andy asked curiously.

Brian sighed, looking very embarrassed - Allison wasn't sure why shrinks were embarrassing, but whatever. "Since last year," He whispered. "Since the flare gun thing."

Allison nodded at him in a reassuring manner. "I can handle a shrink no problem."

Bender snorted at that. "Yeah you just better hope that she doesn't start fucking him in your body there, big Bry."

Brian's cheeks burned and he shrugged. "My therapist is a woman." The group all laughed at that, finally calming down a bit. Allison decided to join the club and give Andy some of her instructions - even though she didn't have to tell him much that he didn't already know.

"I have an art show on Wednesday; they are displaying one of my pictures in the Shermer Galleria. That and I have to see my own shrink on Thursdays."

Andy perked an eyebrow. "Mr. Hashimoto?"

Allison shook her head. "No, my real shrink. My parents might take you, but if they don't I can maybe walk you there."

"If you _can_ get out of the house," Brian commented.

"_Right_," Allison replied.

* * *

"So, Brian…" Claire started. "Um, I guess there is quite a bit that you need to know to be me."

"Oh god, here we go!" Bender moaned.

Claire ignored him and grabbed the notebook for her own turn. "Okay I live with both of my parents, Georgia and Robert. We have a maid named Manuela, and a landscaper named Julio. Manuela lives with us full time, and Julio drops by a few times a week." She bit the inside of her lip and frowned. "They don't speak English very well…in fact, they speak horrible English and you're probably going to have to pick up some basic Spanish."

"Is it close to Latin?" Brian asked enthusiastically.

Claire raised her eyebrows. "I have no idea."

"Oh," Brian sighed dejectedly. "I already know French and Latin; it shouldn't be that hard to pick up."

Claire only shrugged. "You probably won't see my dad much unless he wants something, but if you ever need money or clothes just ask him for his credit card - he should give it to you." Brian's eyeballs almost popped out of his head at that. "My mom is usually home a lot; she's a yoga teacher and she is a volunteer at the charity bingo and on Mayor Hughes' campaign committee. She is throwing a big party for him this weekend and you have to be there to help her set up and keep an eye out around the house."

"That sounds easy enough," Brian replied optimistically.

"Not so fast, mister." She cut him off and gave him an evil look. "I will not have you walking around and looking like that." She was appalled at the way he let her hair sit flat on her head, and how he didn't even bother to try with any make-up. She was a little more forgiving with the clothes, however, her purse did not match her shoes and that was bothering her as well.

Brian swallowed hard. "I didn't want to make you look trashy."

"Well I don't want to look like a slob either." Claire pointed out. "Look, one of these nights I will have to sneak over and give you some fashion tips. In the mean time, remember that you don't wear clashing colors, no white pants or skirts, no mini skirts, and no frumpy sweaters."

"Why can't he wear a mini skirt?" John complained.

Claire rolled his eyes. "Because he doesn't know how to wear one!"

Andy laughed at that. "I didn't know there was a _way_ to wear them."

Claire glared at the three of them. "I will not have my ass falling out in public because he forgets that he can't sit with his legs open, or that he can't bend over. I will not tolerate that."

"You suck, dork!" John moaned.

Brian looked horrified. "You think I want you looking at me that way anyways? I don't think so!"

Claire shook her head at him. "You'll do fine, Brian. I trust you…well more than I would trust him in my body anyways."

"Hey!" John protested loudly. "I resent that!"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm sure that you do."

"Well just so you know, I think you make a shitty Bender anyways. You act all fuckin' faggy and such. I don't trust you."

Claire snorted at that. "So then why don't you give me some pointers, hm?"

John rolled his eyes. "Stay away from the whore - that's my mom's name; stay away from the big asshole - that's my dad's name; and stay away from the crazy fucker with the sticky uppy hair do - that's my brother. Anything else you need to know?"

She gave him a deadpanned look. "Oh that helps, John. Stop worrying about hiding shit now because I'm going to find out anyways. So just spill already."

John glared at her. "You need to go down to a house on Fourth Street West to drop off some money on Friday."

Her eyes nearly bulged out of her head. "Fourth Street West?! Are you crazy? I will get shot, raped, arrested, and beaten all at the same time! What on Earth would you need to be dropping money off there for?"

John stared at her dumbly for a few moments before Andy beat him to the punch. "Why the hell else would he need to drop off money on Fourth Street? That is drug dealer central!"

"WHAT?!" Claire shrieked. "I can't do that! They'll know I'm Claire and they'll abduct me or something!"

John sighed irritably and pinched the bridge of Andy's nose. "Look, I know I wasn't supposed to be doing that shit anymore, but you're gonna have to do this for me so that I can _not_ have a whole organized gang on my back, okay?"

"You're damn right you're not supposed to be doing that shit! You told me you quit dealing, John!" Claire was beyond pissed now; how dare he lie to her like that!

John bit his lip. "I know, I'm sorry, okay! It's only four hundred dollars, the money is in my room…you just have to go in, and go out. You can get someone to go with you!"

"Four hundred?!" Claire was dumbfounded; how could he be pushing that much without her even knowing? "And who would you suggest to go with me? I have no clue who any of your friends even are!"

John clenched his fists. "We'll figure it all out later."

"What, when I find out all the rest of your secrets too? What else are you hiding from me, John?"

He stared at her angrily. "Nothing; the only other thing you need to know is that I have detention on Saturday for the next three months."

Her head almost exploded on that one. "No fucking way!"

_**TBC**_

* * *

**A/N**: And I am back again! I hope you liked that! If you have anymore questions regarding this story, just let me know. For those of you who want to know any background information on Bender' s brother or his friends, go check out the 'OC Catalogue' in my FanFic forum for their full character profiles. Well, here's to hoping you liked it, and don't forget to review:) 


	5. A Crazy Geek

**Title**: Reality Shift  
**Author**: TWBasketcase  
**Rated T** for language, substance use, violence, and awkward situations  
**Chapter Summary**: Andy and Allison talk about how to pursue their relationship in new bodies; Allison has supper with Brian's grandparents  
**A/N**: Thanks for all the great reviews everyone! I am glad that my writing is clear and I am not confusing anyone, lol. I hope you enjoy this one.

* * *

**Chapter 5 - A Crazy Geek**

* * *

"So what do we do from here? I mean, I can't really kiss Brian's face and feel right about it," Andy asked Allison as the two walked towards Brian's house. 

Allison snorted loudly. "Well that's okay; I don't think I can kiss my own face."

Her own face smiled back at her, which she found incredibly strange, but Andy only laughed at her response. "And what is wrong with kissing this face? It's a beautiful face."

She rolled her eyes. "You're so cheesy!"

He shrugged. "What can I say? You have that affect on me." He extended Allison's small hand and laced his fingers through hers and smiled.

"It feels weird being bigger than you," Allison commented. "It feels even weirder talking to myself when I can see me…" Andy laughed at that which only caused Allison more discomfort. "And its even weirder hearing me laugh like that…"

"Okay, okay…but you do know that this is how I see and hear you everyday."

Allison shuddered. "That's unfortunate."

"Okay, self beat up time is over. You had your five minutes of the week, and now your time is up, okay?" He put his arm around her - now - much bigger shoulders and they walked quietly.

"You know," Allison dropped his arm off of her shoulder. "Maybe we should put off touching until this whole thing blows over. It's a little awkward."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Well I guess we'll just have to see how long you can last without touching me."

A devilish smirk appeared across her face. "Don't you mean how long I can last without touching your body?"

He gave her a mock glare. "You go anywhere near Bender and I will knock you out."

She snorted loudly and laughed. "Wouldn't that count as beating up your own girlfriend?"

"Actually I am the girlfriend now, so technically I would be beating Brian up, and with your body I'm not too sure how much damage I would get done…" He held up his hands in defense, as Allison looked ready to smack him one. "See! Now _that_ is abuse!"

"You think I'm not tough?" She asked challengingly.

Andy pretended to think about it for a moment. "Well I guess your body would have the advantage of my wrestling knowledge now…I can challenge you to a wrestling match and we can see if you want."

She grabbed him by the arm and flung him towards the Johnson's front lawn, and he surprisingly fell to the snowy ground. Allison was so used to being able to fly at him from all directions and have him not even flinch at her, but now she had the size advantage over him. He laughed out loud as Allison dove to the ground with him, and the two struggled in the snow, rolling from one side of the lawn to the other.

"Okay, you can't use _all_ of your strength that isn't fair!" Andy complained after Allison pinned him to the ground and held his hands over his head. Andy squirmed under the weight. "You know, I now have the advantage of kicking you in the nuts."

Allison stopped momentarily and stared at him. "Doesn't that hurt a lot?"

Andy took the moment of distraction as an advantage and rolled her over onto (Brian's) back and he straddled her hips. "Ha! Who is the king of the world now?!" He broke out into his maniacal laughter.

"Wouldn't you be the queen? And why are you on top of my brother?" Andy immediately jumped off of Allison and stared at the young girl on the Johnson's doorstep.

Allison stood from the lawn and dusted off her jeans. "Hey, Mary. We were just…practicing…for a play."

Her eyebrows rose and she put her hands on her tiny hips. "I'm telling mom on you!"

Allison looked at Andy and muttered, "Is that a bad thing?"

Andy shrugged his shoulders. "I don't really know…"

Allison looked back at the younger girl. "Why would mom care anyways?"

Mary stared at her as if she was the stupidest person on the planet. "Duh! She hates that witch girl and I'm gonna tell her that she's your girlfriend."

"She hates me…I mean, Allison?!" Allison glared at the younger girl. "How come?"

"Because she's a witch," Mary stated matter of factly.

Andy cleared his throat. "Witches have brooms and warts on their noses, and do I have any of those?"

Mary stared at him for a few moments. "No, I guess not."

Andy walked up to the girl, making Allison's body look like a total fruitcake in her opinion. He grabbed the younger girl's hand and sat down on the front porch next to her. "You don't have to think I'm a witch just because I like black. Do you have a favorite color?"

She nodded her head. "Purple."

"So would it be fair for me to call you a big ugly grape because you like to dress in purple clothes?"

The little girl laughed loudly at the image in her head. "What about a raison? Or Grimace?"

Andy's eyebrow perked up at that. "Grimace?"

"Yeah! That big fatso from McDonald's!" The little girl was laughing so hard she fell over onto her side. Andy just smiled up at Allison from his vantage point and continued to play along.

"Okay, you look like Grimace!" The little girl fell into another fit of giggles on the front porch. Allison could not believe that he actually got the young girl to like "her". She approached the two and opened up the door behind them, unlocking it so that they could go inside and get out of the cold.

"So, don't get scared of me just because I like to dress in my favorite color, okay? I'm just as fun as Brian can be." The younger girl stared up at Andy admirably and smiled.

"Okay, I think we should be friends. Do you want to come up into my room?" The little girl had a hopeful look on her face.

Andy bit his lip. "Actually I have homework to do, and we all know how important homework is."

The little girl nodded her head understandingly. "My mommy says that homework is more important than friends are. I'll see you later." With that, the girl ran full speed up the stairs and into her bedroom.

Allison stared at Andy. "Well, looks like someone can be the next six-year-old-girl role model of 1985."

He rolled his eyes at her good naturedly. "I think you're jealous of my social skills."

She slumped into the couch and folded her arms. "What're you talking about? I have _no_ social skills…"

Andy slumped down beside her and put his head on her shoulder. "What did I tell you about beating yourself up like that? I was just joking."

She pushed him off of her roughly. "I told you no touching."

He sighed. "Allison, I'm trying here, okay? I don't want things to change just because of this little situation! I'm still me and you are still you and that should be enough!"

She glared at him. "No, you are me and I am Brian. No offense, but my shrink told me that it's unhealthy to argue with myself, so let's just drop it."

"We can drop it, but that's not going to change anything," Andy chipped in.

Allison let out a growl. "Things are changed, Andy! We're in the wrong bodies, in the wrong houses, and we don't know how to get out! What if we're like this forever?"

He placed a hand on her elbow. "We won't be, but for the next little while we're just going to have to stick it through, okay?" He pulled her chin so that she was looking at him. "We need to be there for each other in the meantime."

Allison nodded quietly. "As long as my own body stops molesting me then I'll agree."

Andy burst out laughing at that and leaned back against the couch. "You're such a freak!"

"You're just finding that out now?" She too cracked a smile and began to laugh.

He stood from his spot on the couch and stretched. "I'm going to get going now before Mrs. Johnson comes home and gets you in shit." He walked towards the door and began to pull on his shoes. "Is there anything else you think I need to know before I go?"

Allison curled her legs underneath of her and shrugged. "Besides the fact that I'm getting my period soon, nothing at all."

Andy's face paled considerably and he dropped his shoe to the ground. "What the fuck did you just say?"

Allison burst out laughing. "Nothing, you'll be fine."

"No! I will not leave this house until you switch me bodies!" Allison shoved him out the front door and her body fell into the snow. "Stop abusing me! You can't do this to me!"

Allison grinned evilly at him. "I can, and I did. Now go before I get grounded."

Andy tried to muster his best scary face and pointed a finger at her. "You better sleep with one eye open tonight! I'm so stealing your body! There is no way in hell that I'm…"

"Bye Allison!" Allison called before slamming the door on her complaining boyfriend. She loved to get him riled up, especially when he annoyed the hell out of her. She looked around the house and remembered that she had to take care of Brian's pets.

* * *

Allison placed plates around the dining room table for Diane. Brian's mother had been in an incredibly pessimistic mood since his grandparents had called and said that they were on their way over. The roast beef had been roasting in the crock pot since earlier that morning, and Diane was just now preparing the mashed potatoes, gravy, turnip, and beans for their dinner. Everyone in the house - minus Allison - was extremely anxious about the older couple's visit. Allison didn't care for her own grandparents, so naturally the impending visit of Brian's didn't bother her much - but at the same time, she didn't want to screw things up for Brian. She figured it she kept as quiet and polite as possible, she wouldn't have a problem with them. 

"Brian, I need you to go upstairs and get changed for me please." Diane mashed the potatoes without even looking up at her as she spoke.

Allison inwardly cringed at the clothing demand. "What do I have to wear?"

Diane perked an eyebrow at her. "A dress shirt, some dress pants and a tie please." Allison sighed and before she could leave the kitchen, Diane spoke up once more. "And make sure that you match, please!"

Once Allison had finished dressing, she stood in the middle of the room fighting with the tie; she had never as much as held one in her hand before, let alone tied one. She let out a frustrated sigh and dropped onto the bed, temporarily giving up on the tie. She had no idea that it could actually be difficult to dress a teenage boy. She looked in the mirror on top of Brian's dresser from her spot on the bed and sighed; she wasn't going to get anywhere acting like a child. She got up from the bed and tucked in her shirt and left the room to go see Brian's mother in the kitchen. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, two dinosaur-aged people were scurrying in the front door and removing their winter apparel.

"Brian, what on Earth is wrong with you!" The older man nearly shouted at Allison; she nearly jumped out of her skin at the booming sound of his voice. He was a short man - probably only 5'6" tall - and was very skinny; his booming voice did not match his appearance.

"Um…nothing, sir…nothing is wrong with me at all!" Allison gave the man her brightest (albeit fakest) smile and folded her hands behind her back.

"He isn't even dressed fully, Diane! It's his birthday! What is wrong with you?!" Now the older lady was yelling. Allison had never quite been more confused in her life. Diane didn't say anything; she only approached Allison and began to tie up her tie for her.

Allison swallowed hard. "Oh, it's not my mom's fault. This is just a tricky tie…because it's…new, you know." God! She was even starting to ramble like Brian!

"Don't lie to your Grandfather, young man!" Brian's grandpa yelled. "We bought you that tie two Christmases ago!" Allison yelped slightly and looked at Brian's mother for help; she only shrugged and turned to walk into the kitchen to finish making up supper. Already Allison had felt like she'd been screwing things up and supper hadn't even officially begun yet.

"I'm sorry?" Allison responded dumbly. Grandma opened her mouth to pitch in something else, but before she could Mary and Brian's father also came bounding down the stairs. The little girl hesitantly wrapped her arms around Grandma's waist and said hello. She looked just as nervous as Diane did.

"Hello Mom…Dad," Ralph Johnson approached his parents fearlessly and kissed them both on the cheek and welcomed them into the home. The whole situation was so surreal to Allison; whenever her Grandparents came over they all (including her parents) just broke out the bourbon and played bridge without so much of a conversation. Her entire extended family didn't pay much attention to each other, so this new situation was a bit much for her. Before she could hear any more strange bickering she left the living room and went into the kitchen to hide out with Diane.

It was the first time in her life that she had even contemplated running to Mrs. Johnson for comfort.

"Listen Brian, whatever else they ask you or say, please just go along with it," Diane handed Allison a large bowl of mashed potatoes to place on the dinner table. "I don't want to have to get into another school argument this time; you know how they are." She rolled her eyes and moved quickly around the kitchen to make sure their meals were perfect.

She placed the bowl on the table quietly and sat at one of the chairs closest to the kitchen wall. Diane stopped and stared at her for a few moments. "Can you fix your collar please? There is a stain on it, and lord knows what bullshit they'd come up with if they saw you wearing that." Allison raised her eyebrows at Diane's choice of words, but still said nothing and fixed the collar.

After a few moments Grandma, Grandpa, Mary, and Ralph all joined Allison and Diane in the dining room for dinner. It started off fairly silent at first as everyone worked on getting some food on their plates, but of course that didn't last very long.

"So Brian, you're finally a senior this year, and you're in your final term," Grandma began.

Allison nodded her head and worked on not looking at the pile of cow on her plate. "Yes, I like it."

"Well you should! You're almost ready for an Ivy League school!" Grandpa exclaimed sternly.

"Now, dad, Brian has already…" Ralph started, but was quickly cut off.

"You _are_ going to an Ivy League school, aren't you Brian?" Grandma asked.

Diane looked sharply from Allison to her husband. "Brian still has some paperwork to fill out."

"Why on Earth would you wait so long? Are you insane Diane?!" Grandpa yelled, nearly making Allison fall out of her chair. These people were crazy; she was silly for ever deeming her family as the crazy ones.

She remembered vaguely Brian telling her that it was really a State University that he really wanted to go to; in fact, she was positive he'd had his sights set on State University. "I want to go to Penn State." Allison exclaimed, stunning the entire to table to silence.

Ralph was the only one smiling at that point. "Would anybody like a dinner roll?"

"BRIAN!" Grandpa, Grandma, and Diane all screeched at the same time, which kind of scared the jumpy Allison. She dropped her fork, and it fell to the floor with a loud 'clank'.

The whole supper table sat and stared at her as she focused on making her breathing regular again. Mary smiled at her. "When is Allison going to come over again? I think she should be your girlfriend."

Diane glared at the younger girl. "We are not talking about Brian's friends right now!"

"They were rolling around on the grass today!" She looked incredibly happy at that particular scenario, which made Allison want to groan even more; stupid Andy was going to pay!

"You are not dating that girl!" Ralph yelled at her.

"You must drop all of these thoughts about not going to an Ivy League school! That is just ludicrous!" Grandpa yelled.

"When did you plan on telling me this?" Diane yelled at Allison.

Grandma glared at Brian's mother. "Don't you dare yell at him, Diane! This is all your fault! If you would know how to put down your foot and raise your children properly then none of this would have happened in the first place!"

"She's a great mother, mother! Don't talk to her like that, please?" Ralph pleaded with Grandma.

"I spilled my milk!" Mary yelled triumphantly, trying to get the attention away from her 'brother' and back on her where she felt it belonged.

"Ralph please stay out of this, I think we should all just relax," Diane suggested.

Grandpa turned to Allison and pointed a large finger at her. "You've dug yourself a big hole, young man! I hope that this is the last time that I have to warn you to get your head out of the clouds, and start thinking realistically. There's no way in hell that I'm going to let you throw your life away on some shoddy school!"

Ralph cleared his throat. "Dad, Penn State is a great school! They have over 50,000 students…I don't think they'd be…"

"Shut up, Ralph!" Diane, Grandma, and Grandpa simultaneously yelled at him. Allison could not believe the chaos going on at the table.

She stood from her seat and pushed her plate away. "I'm going to my room."

"You will sit down, young man!" Grandma yelled at her. Allison glared at her and jutted Brian's chin out.

"Brian," Grandpa warned. Without another word, Allison stormed up to Brian's room and slammed the door.

* * *

An hour later, a small knock was heard from Brian's bedroom door. Allison had lain on the bed staring at the ceiling during that time, and she was unsure if she could tolerate his family's company at that moment. However, it didn't matter what Allison wanted anyway, as Mrs. Johnson poked her head through the door soon after. 

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" She asked quietly.

Allison sighed. "They ruined my birthday."

She nodded. "I'm sorry about that, honey."

Allison shrugged. "Whatever."

"Please don't use that tone of voice with me…I'm on your side here." Diane stepped fully into the room and closed the door behind her. She walked gracefully to the bed and sat on the edge of it. "I just wanted to come up here and make sure that you were okay."

Allison bit her lip to think over her words; one slip of the tongue and her cover could be blown. "Our family is crazy, you know that? My friends' families don't act that way. I felt like I was at a zoo."

Diane nodded. "I don't like it either, you know." She tucked her hair behind her ear and sighed. "I never knew that you felt that way; you never tell me these things. I can't possibly know if you aren't going to tell me."

Allison nodded, trying to figure out how to make things right. "Am I allowed to go to Penn State? What's the big deal anyways…?"

"We'll talk about university when you get your acceptation letters." She ran a hand through Brian's hair and smiled. "And there's no pressure for you to go to an Ivy League school. Yes, I do want you to have good grades, and I want you to study hard, but you don't have to do whatever your Grandparents tell you to do. We can figure it all out later."

Allison nodded. "Thanks…mom."

Diane smiled and kissed her on the cheek. "Whenever you're ready you can come down for a piece of cake, okay?"

Allison rubbed the place where Diane kissed and nodded. "Yeah, okay." The older woman made her way across the floor and out of the room, quietly closing the door behind her, leaving Allison with her thoughts.

She had never seen a side of Mrs. Johnson like that before in the whole time she had known Brian, and not only that, it was the first time that she had a mother-like figure giving her advice in a long time - even if it was advice about Brian's life and not her own. The show of affection had a strange affect on her that made her feel a bit overly emotional. It felt good to know that someone was there for her when she needed it - even if the woman was a bit crazy (and so was her whole family), and even if the woman had no idea that it really wasn't her son that she was talking to.

In a way Allison felt envious of Brian for him having so much support from them; even if his whole family was insanely strict, at least he knew that he had people who cared enough about him to even worry about him anyways. On the other hand however, Allison was beginning to understand why Brian was so uptight and stressed all of the time. She found it very interesting that he had never voiced his opinions to Diane before, especially considering how well she had actually taken hers, but Allison figured that maybe Brian was a bit intimidated by the woman; perhaps he was raised to make sure that he always respected his elders. Either way, Brian's life was a lot more complicated than she ever would have figured.

She always knew that he had his fair share of problems, but she now knew that it took a special and tough kind of person to have so many responsibilities like he did. Not only did he have to worry about those crazy family members of his, but he also had his grades, his pets, his homework, his chores…he had a lot on his plate to juggle for just one eighteen year old kid.

Her stomach rumbled and she figured it was time to set aside her wounded pride and go downstairs and eat. Besides, she figured that the family probably wouldn't even bother saying another word to one another for the rest of the night; they would probably be too pigheaded to give up on their side of the fight anyways. Anyway, she wasn't entirely concerned about what else the Johnson family had to say to her tonight.

She still had to give Brian his detailed report of the night at school tomorrow.

_**TBC**_

* * *

**A/N**: Sorry it took so long for the update, guys! I had a bit of a writer's block, but I think I'm over that for the most part now :) Thank god! Anyhow, I really do hope that you enjoyed this chapter, and please don't forget to review! 


	6. School Days

**Title**: Reality Shift  
**Author**: TWBasketCase  
**Rated**: T for language, drug use, violence, and awkward situations  
**Chapter Summary**: The club meets up at school where they discuss their class schedules, Allison's dinner, and friends  
**A/N:** Thanks for the great reviews! Keep them coming!

_**WARNING: The views of the characters expressed are NOT the same as those of the author's. I am not a homophobe by ANY means, so please do not take Bender's views and homosexual discrimination from me. They are just part of the story and I DO NOT feel the same way.**_

* * *

**Chapter 6 - School Days**

* * *

_Wednesday March 13, 1985_

* * *

Brian waited anxiously at his locker for Allison to show up for school. He had a horrible feeling about his birthday supper with his grandparents all night; Allison hadn't called him, and none of the others had heard from her that he knew of. The last time his parents and his grandparents had gotten together it had been a total disaster which left his mother, his sister, and his grandmother in tears. If he could have any wish in the world sometimes it would be that they would just put their differences aside - whatever their true differences really were.

His night at Claire's the previous evening had proved fairly easy. Her parents allowed for her to have as much privacy as she wanted, which made it easy for Brian to avoid them at all costs. They had a maid who made dinner and cleaned up after them, so he didn't have any chores to do either. It was a big difference from what he was used to at his own home, but he kind of liked it. He was never treated as a king, nor did he ever get his own way; Claire's house was like a much welcomed vacation.

He knew that Claire's school life was going to be a much different story, however. Claire was part of student council, the dance committee, the fashion club - social clubs were a lot different than academic clubs. Her friends, for the most part, would also prove difficult. They were shop-a-holics, make-up freaks, and boy crazy; how was he supposed to get along with a group like that? Claire's friends hardly accepted her friendship with him as it was, so it was going to be extremely difficult for him to pose as Claire entirely.

"You got your head in the clouds again?" Allison's smiling face stood in front of him, and instantly he had a million questions.

"Wow, Al, I'm glad that you're here! How did supper go? Were they totally horrible? Did they make you cry? How's my dog?" Brian was cut off by Allison throwing her hands up in the air to stop him.

"Whoa! Hold up…I'm Andy, remember?" 'Allison' looked exasperated.

Brian felt a blush creep up to his cheeks. "Oh yeah…I guess if you really were Allison, then I would still be Brian, and Claire would be the one standing here talking to you…and not me…you know, so then really…I wouldn't have even had any of those questions to begin with!" He took a deep breath and laughed.

Andy only shook his head. "Yep, what you said. I was just going to wait for Allison here myself." He folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the row of lockers. "So how are you enjoying life as a girl, Bry?"

Brian's eyes widened at that. "It's absolutely horrifying! I can't dress myself, or look nice, or even go to the bathroom without blushing! I feel like I'm violating Claire just by looking down at my hands! I don't know how the hell those girls live like this…its, just…you know…difficult."

Andy rolled his eyes and laughed. "You're kidding me, right?"

Brian shook his head. "Not at all."

Andy laughed. "Well I think it's the coolest thing in the whole world! Seriously Brian, we have boobs!"

A girl at the locker next to them snorted and walked away, which made Brian shoot Andy a death glare. "Watch what you say! She's going to think we're lesbos!"

Andy closed his eyes and shook his head. "Don't give me those thoughts, Brian, I'm begging you."

Brian scrunched up his face at that, and was ready to retort before he saw his body storming towards his locker. He waved at Allison and smiled. "How're you doing today?"

She took a deep breath. "Where do you want me to start?"

"How about with you throwing me out of Brian's house yesterday!" Andy butt in with a glare.

Allison turned around and punched him in the shoulder. "You got me in trouble with Mary!"

"Mary likes me!" Andy protested.

"She told Mrs. Johnson that we're dating!" Allison exclaimed with Brian's squeaky voice.

Brian pushed Andy back from Allison and stomped his foot angrily. "What did you guys do?!" Andy and Allison were known for doing some pretty weird things together for kicks, so Brian was a little scared to hear the answer.

Allison rolled her eyes and folded her arms. "Andy came over and beat me up on your lawn…"

"That is such a lie, you abusive jerk!" Andy cut in.

Allison ignored him and continued. "And Mary caught him straddling me and said she was telling your mom. So Andy called her Grimace and made her giggle and then she decided that she liked him - or me, or whatever - so she told your mom that she wanted us to date and that we like to roll around on top of each other."

Brian's face burned a bright shade of red. "Andy, did you have to even go to my house?"

Andy snorted. "She threw me out before your mom even got home from work."

Allison nodded in agreement. "Yep, she didn't even see him…me…you know."

Andy glared at her. "And she _literally_ shoved me out the door and knocked me down!"

Allison, again, nodded in agreement. "I'm taking advantage of it while I still can."

Brian rolled his eyes. "Guys, I would really appreciate it if you didn't act all…like you guys…when you're with my family. They are really, um, sensitive."

Allison groaned. "You're telling me. You have no idea what I had to go through last night."

Brian instantly remembered the birthday dinner again; his stomach knotted up and he swallowed. "How did it go?"

Allison sighed and gave him an apologetic glance. "Sorry…" Brian bit his lip in disappointment and sighed. Just as Allison got ready to explain herself, Claire approached (looking rather clean for Bender) and joined the group.

"Well first they flipped on me because I couldn't figure out how to tie a tie. I never even dress up, and I tried! They yelled at me as soon as they walked in the door." She looked a little upset by the fact, so Brian didn't have the heart to be angry with her. "Then they got mad at your mom for not raising you right, and then I accidentally let it slip that you want to go to Penn State."

Brian's eyes nearly bulged out of his head. "WHAT?!"

Allison bit her lip. "I'd figured that you would've at least told your mom! How was I supposed to know?"

Brian bit his lip. "What did they say?"

"Your grandparents flipped out. Your mom was mad at first, but then we talked about it." She said it rather casually, which came as a surprise to Brian.

"You talked about it? How did that happen?" Brian was pretty confused; he felt like he couldn't tell his mother anything. She was close minded, ignorant to his feelings, and way too intimidating to have that kind of conversation with.

Allison just shrugged her shoulders. "She asked me if I was okay, so I talked to her. It wasn't that bad actually; I expected her to be a total bitch."

"So she's okay with it?" Brian asked incredulously.

Allison shrugged again. "She just said that you'd talk about it when the time comes."

Brian opened his mouth to speak, but the warning bell for class beat him to it. Bender joined the group a few moments later. He looked at Andy - and he looked miserable as hell. "Where the fuck am I supposed to be?"

"What's wrong with you?" Andy asked seriously.

Bender opened his mouth to reply, but then strangely just shook his head. "Never mind. Just give me your schedule so I can figure out where I need to go."

Andy nodded and dug around in Allison's bag for the trusty spiral notebook. He tore a piece of paper out and quickly scrawled down his schedule against Brian's locker. "You have to go to wrestling practice at lunch time."

John face went from irritated to explosive when he looked at Andy's timetable. "You have practice at lunch, health in the morning, _and_ gym in the afternoon? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"I need to keep in shape!" Andy defended, and passed the notebook to Claire so that everyone else could exchange courses.

"Oh, this is not going to fuckin' work," John said through gritted teeth. "No fucking way."

An annoyed look passed over Andy's face and he glared at John. "You're not the only one that has to go to classes that they don't enjoy, so shut the hell up. I'm stuck in art class and English. I'm horrible at both!"

Claire passed off her classes to Brian. "Here, I'm sure that you won't have a problem with these." Brian looked the list over and grinned: advanced calculus, literature, Spanish, human anatomy, study hall, and home economics.

"This will be a piece of cake!" Brian exclaimed happily.

Claire laughed as Brian began to write his schedule down for Allison. "Don't worry; I'm just as happy as you are that you're the one doing my homework."

Allison frowned at Brian's schedule. "You're going to hate me after a couple of days, you realize that, right?"

Brian bit his lip; he had already thought about that. "There isn't much that we can do about that is there? Just try your best."

Allison looked a bit surprised at his answer, but shrugged her shoulders nonetheless. "Okay, I will."

Brian nodded and smiled. "Good, so what do you guys say we meet at lunch time?"

Bender snorted before he started walking away. "No can do, I have balls to grab."

Brian regarded the rest of the group, who all gave him a nod. "Well, have fun today guys…I guess."

* * *

Claire entered Shermer High's shop classroom empty-handed and feeling extremely out of place. Strangely, there wasn't a single other girl in the whole room, and there was probably only about fifteen boys in the class total. She hadn't even as much as met the shop teacher before in her four years at the school.

She looked around the room and noticed two boys that John hung out with regularly. One was a thin, blonde haired boy that was always wearing a black denim jacket, and the other was a very tall and muscular African-American boy. She bit her lip and made her way over to their table.

"Hey guys," She smiled at them and sat next to the black boy, who she remembered as Reggie.

The blonde boy, Roger, snorted at her and smacked her arm - hard. "You sleepin' or something?"

Claire's eyebrows furrowed as she rubbed her arm. "What're you talking about?"

He shot her a strange look and motioned to the table in front of her. "You're sitting in Tom's seat. That's his project."

Claire shot up, feeling incredibly stupid; she racked her mind for something macho and stupid to say. "Fuck you; I'm having a shitty morning."

Roger held up his hands in defense. "Don't bite my head off, man! I was just askin' you a question!"

Claire bit her lip and shrugged. "Sorry."

It was Reggie's turn to look exasperated. "Johnny, I think that's the first time I've ever heard that come out of your mouth!"

Claire was beginning to realize very quickly that she made a very shitty Bender. "Fuck off, fag!" She tried using her best bitchy voice; she figured her bitchy attitude combined with her boyfriend's scary face would at least work in her favor. She took the seat next to Roger and sighed. "I don't wanna be here."

Roger nodded in agreement. "Well at least we can work on our projects today."

A larger, bald headed man walked into the classroom and closed the door behind him. "Alright guys, good morning and take your seats please." He set his work folder down on a wooden desk at the front of the shop and rubbed his forehead. "There's been a change of plans today, fellas."

Before he continued, a large skin head boy hurried into the class and shot the teacher a smirk before sitting down in his seat. Claire had seen him before, but had never met him. However, since he sat down in the seat that she had previously been sitting in, she figured that he was Tom. "'Mornin', Sir!"

The older man glared at the chunky boy and sighed. "That's the third day this week, Mr. Stevens; do we need to pencil you in for another Saturday detention?"

Reggie laughed. "You can keep Johnny company!"

Claire said nothing and only stared at the nose ring in Tom's face; it wasn't through his nostril like most nose rings were, instead it was right through the fleshy part between the nostrils - the septum; it was the grossest piercing she had ever seen.

"No, sir!" Tom laughed at the older man.

"Alright then, let's get started, shall we?" The older man opened up his work folder and started sifting through a pile of pages. "We're going to set aside our table projects for the time being and begin work on our final projects…"

"But it's only March!" Claire blurted out in protest; she had never even picked up a hammer in her entire life, there was no way she was going to be responsible for John's final project!

"Are you on your period or something, Mr. Bender?" The teacher glared at her. "My wife doesn't even sound that whiny! You'll do the project now, or you can leave! I don't give a shit, so pick one!"

She bit her lip and slumped in her seat as she noticed the rest of the boys in the class staring at her oddly.

"What I want is a piece of furniture - you can choose what that is - but there has to be certain designs incorporated into it. For example, there has to be a shelf, drawer, or a storage space of some sort within in. I want there to also be two of the twenty-five border designs that we studied. I have a hand-out here that has all of the requirements that you need for this project." He handed a pile of papers to the boy sitting closest to him to pass out. "Are there any questions?"

"I thought we were going to do something fun this year…" Reggie muttered to the rest of the boys at their table.

Roger nodded in agreement. "It's weird considering that we had to do a lamp last year; lamps are way more complicated."

"Well at least we won't have to pay for the fuckin' supplies this time," Reggie shrugged.

Tom grabbed the stack of papers that was coming around and grabbed one for each of them before passing them along. "Holy fuck…he has like a hundred fuckin' things on here that he wants!"

"Mr. Stevens! Detention after school!" The teacher belted out from across the room. "I've told you all on many occasions now that that language will not be tolerated in my classroom."

"What a douche," Reggie laughed at Tom.

Claire took her paper and stared at it glumly; there is no way in hell she would be able to get this done unless John did it for her. She wasn't exactly sure if they were even allowed to do those kinds of projects outside of school or not; for John's sake she hoped that she could. She wouldn't be able to hammer a nail in straight if she wanted to…hell, she wasn't even sure if she knew how to use sandpaper properly.

On top of having a class that she knew nothing about, the weird feeling in her chest wasn't helping her mood any either. Her lungs felt tight and constricting, and she was getting extremely irritated. She knew that John always got bitchy when he needed a cigarette, and she wondered if maybe what she was feeling was a withdrawal. She had bothered John for so long about quitting smoking, and it only now just occurred to her how uncomfortable it was to not have one.

Roger leaned over to her so that the other boys couldn't hear him. "Are you okay? You seem kinda…weird today."

She smiled at his concern. "I think I just need a smoke."

He nodded and laughed; he had a nice smile. "Do you wanna ditch?"

She looked over at the teacher who was reading a newspaper and drinking coffee - with his feet perched on top of the desk. "Sure, how do we get outta here?"

Roger snorted loudly at that, and shook his head as he stood. "You really are out of it this morning, ain't ya?" He motioned for her to follow him. "Let's go, what are ya waiting for?"

Claire looked to the other boys at the table, but they weren't even paying any attention to them. She quickly moved from her seat to the door and followed Roger's lead. She had met Roger quite a few times, and she did like him; he was a lot nicer and polite than all of John's other friends, which she figured was why he was John's best friend. She wondered briefly if he knew anything about this drug dealer guy that she had to go see on Friday; maybe if she was lucky, she could get Roger to come with her.

It would be better than going off on her own.

* * *

Bender stood angrily in the middle of the gym; it was at that time that he should have been getting high, smoking, and eating something…but no! He had to wear a faggy pair of tights and sit in the gym with a bunch of clowns who liked to towel whip each other in the locker room. He had never been more pissed off in his entire life.

He had no idea how Andrew walked around wearing those things; he felt like he had a massive wedgie, and that all the homos around him could see his dick. Not only that, but he had a thing with wearing such a small amount of clothing; he was real used to having scars and bruises to cover him up, so wearing something so - not there - made him feel extremely self conscious.

"Alright listen up, girls!" A short, stocky man with salt-and-pepper hair walked through the gym with a stern look on his face. "I want ten laps around the gym, and then you can all drop and give me fifty. Do your stretch exercises, and then we'll meet up together in the centre of the gym!" He blew his whistle. "Get going!"

John stood and watched as all the other boys in the class began to run. He hated fucking running and he only did it when someone was chasing him (which sadly did happen often). He rolled his eyes and began to run as well. He hadn't taken a phys-ed class since his freshmen year, and that was only because it was mandatory. He couldn't for the life of him remember how to breathe properly, or pace himself, or how to do proper stretches. Physical fitness and bodily heath was something he did not care about at all; a shower and sex was all the body health that he needed to get by.

It surprised him that he wasn't even close to being out of breath by the time his ninth lap came around. Andrew's body felt a lot more stronger and flexible than his own did (which he would still never dare admit to anyone), and the exercise actually felt good. He finished his laps and did his push-ups, which took him only a minute to complete. He thought the wrestling stuff should be a piece of cake.

"Alright guys!" Coach walked towards the centre of the gym and looked each of the wrestlers in the face. "I want all y'all to partner up so that we can start a circuit."

John stood dumbly in the middle of the gym; he didn't like any of the jocks in the gym with him, so he figured that he would wait until someone else picked him. It was only a few moments later before another blonde haired boy punched him in the arm and laughed. "Hey Clark, wanna be my bitch today?"

Bender thought for a second that he should probably punch the kid in the face, but the Coach blowing his whistle - again, for the ten thousandth fucking time - interrupted his thoughts. "Alright, each of you pick a mat and we'll do two minute time limit match-ups. I don't want any pinning; we're just going to work on move-to-move transitions."

The other boy clapped Bender's shoulder and moved over to the mat that was closest to them. The blonde boy, whom he learned was named Jack, took position on one end of the mat. He stood with his knees slightly bent and his arms up; Bender didn't know what else to do, so he just tried to do what he did. It was only after standing in that position for a few seconds that his left knee began to feel extremely agitated from the weight pressure. Bender straightened out his posture just as soon as the Coach blew the whistle. John wasn't even looking up when Jack grabbed him and threw him to the ground, twisted his arm behind his back, and ground his face into the floor.

John grunted loudly and began to thrash around underneath of the other boy. He couldn't for the life of him figure out how he had him all tied up, so he just pulled and pulled until he slipped his arm free. He rolled on the floor until he was on his back, rather then his stomach, and lifted his leg up to kick the other boy off of him.

"Why the fuck are you using your feet, Clark?" Jack yelled angrily.

John just grunted angrily and tried wrapping his arms around the other guy to get him down in a move. He wrapped one arm around Jack's waist, and the other around his leg until the other boy started punching him. "What the fuck?" Bender yelled.

"Why are you grabbing me there, you homo?!"

Anger surged through Bender's body at the accusation and he flew at the other boy with his fists. "You wanna see a homo, you piece of shit?" He pulled his arm back and connected his fist square with Jack's jaw. As soon as the other boy's arms flew to his face and he stumbled back, John pounced on him again, that time tackling him right to the floor.

The wrestling stuff was a piss off; not only did he not know what to do, but the second he tried to do something, some asshole was coming onto him and calling him a flamer. If there was one thing that Bender would not tolerate it would be being called a faggot. He raised his fist back and punched Jack in the nose, and then proceeded to grab him by the hair and push his head into the ground.

"Clark!" Coach blew his whistle and raced up to the two boys. "What on Earth are you doing?!"

A group of wrestlers pulled John off of the fallen jock and pushed him away. The Coach gave him a stern look. "Clark, you get your fruity ass to my office right now." Bender only stood and glared at the older man angrily for his choice of words, but Coach would have none of that. "NOW!"

_**TBC**_

* * *

**A/N**: Bender's group of friends is a group of OC's that I have established in some of my other stories, and they all make up the unlovable cast of 'Renegade'. Read that if you would like to know more about them, or you can visit my forums and look them up in the Author's OC Catalogue.  
**A/N 2**: Thanks for reading, and please don't forget to review! 


	7. Rough Times At Shermer High

**Title**: Reality Shift  
**Author**: TWBasketCase  
**Rated**: T for a whole whack load of reasons  
**Chapter Summary**: John is lectured by Andy's wrestling coach, and is not happy about it at all; Brian has a hard time keeping up with the school's princess league; Andy learns just how lonely being Allison can be.

* * *

**Chapter 7 - Rough Times at Shermer High**

* * *

"What in god's name were you thinking, Clark? That was the lowest show of sportsmanship I've seen in all my years of coaching!" Andy's coach was furious. John could distinctly see the veins in his neck pulsating at a rapid pace. He was almost afraid that the old man would drop dead of a coronary on him. "Are you even listening to me? No school is going to offer a scholarship to a disciplinary case!"

John nodded his head and bit back the nasty remarks on the tip of his tongue. "Yes, sir."

The coach leaned back into his chair and rubbed a hand over his head. "Why would you even pull a stunt like that, Clark? That is not you! Is there something bothering you?"

Bender couldn't help but snort at that; what the hell _wasn't_ bothering him? "I'm fine, sir."

"Don't you understand that you need your teammates on your side? They're your biggest support system outside of your father and me! They're your friends!"

Bender rolled his eyes and began to fall back into his habit of slouching and not paying attention to what was being said to him. Who was that asshole to tell him who he was friends with? That guy, Jack, had called him a faggot and tried to start shit with _him_! He had every right in the world to belt the guy; it looked good on him!

"Clark!" The coach screamed in John's face, making him jump out of his thoughts. "I've lost my patience with you! You _will_ damn well listen to me when I'm talking to you, damnit!" He slammed his fist down on his desk and stared at John angrily. "I will not be having any of my boys acting like savage animals on my watch, no siree!"

John began to feel the anger rise in his chest. "Oh yeah? And just what the hell are you going to do about it?"

Coach stood slowly and menacingly from his chair and walked around the side of the desk so that he was towering over John. Bender began to feel the anxiety welling up in his chest having the older man standing over him. "What the hell did you just say, boy?"

He just couldn't help himself; after many years of violence in his home from his father, John couldn't stand having the man near him that way. As if it were an ungodly routine, his palms began to sweat and his heart rate sped up, increasing his breath sounds naturally. He hated feeling like such a chicken shit around a guy that he could probably over power easily, but he just couldn't shake the anxious feeling that something really bad was going to happen. His father made him feel the same way.

"I asked what you were gonna do…" John mumbled, but couldn't even finish his sentence before coach had grabbed him by the shoulder straps of his wrestling tights and hauled him to his feet, holding him inches away from his angry face.

"You don't wanna know what kinda shit I would do to teach you to respect me, boy. You know damn well that your old man would allow it too. I think you've forgotten just who's the boss around here!" He threw John to the floor in a heap and stood over him. John instantly backed himself into the wall as far as he could go and kept his eyes glued to the older man. "What's a matter, Clark? You gonna cry?"

John fucking hated it when his dad said that. '_You gonna cry, Johnny? You little fucking faggot! No boy of mine cries like some little good fer nuthin' bitch! You're gonna get it now, you cry-baby!_' He quickly scrambled to his feet and shoved the coach away from him. "Fuck you! Get your fuckin' hands off of me!"

Coach looked surprised at the outburst, but instantly regained his exposure. "What the hell is a matter with you?"

John grabbed Andy's sport bag and quickly backed himself towards the door. "Stay the fuck away from me."

Coach's expression went from angry and very quickly to confused. "Andy, are you okay?"

John took a deep breath and realized that he was freaking out. He had forgotten that he was in fact inside of Andrew's body, and that he was not acting normally for Andrew. John felt like such a loser at that moment, for letting some bottom feeding high school sports coach make him feel like that. He closed his eyes and continued to take long, careful breaths. "I'm fine, sir. I'm…I'm sorry."

Coach's face softened a bit and he scratched the back of his head. "Look, let's just forget about what happened at practice, okay son?" He returned to his chair and handed John a late slip for class. "I just don't want to see you blow your ride over some cry baby temper tantrum. I thought we went through this last year…"

"We did," John quickly finished for him, not wanting to hear another stupid lecture.

Coach nodded. "Just stay away from Peterson. We've got state quarter finals to worry about, don't we?"

John shrugged awkwardly. "I guess."

Coach struggled to keep eye contact with him, which John guessed was because of his previous behavior. "Just you keep on training and keep that sorry ass of yours out of trouble, you hear?"

John nodded. "Sure."

"You're excused. Go hit the shower." Coach looked back down to his desk and began scrawling a pen across a sheet of lined paper. John sighed and turned on his heel back towards the gymnasium. He felt completely agitated.

The constant presence of strict authority was starting to get to him already and it was only the second day in Andrew's body. John had grown up in a home where he associated discipline and authority with a fist or other random weapons. The times that his father wasn't angry, drunk, or abusive the old man didn't give much of a fuck what he did. Bender could handle the berating in front of a group of people, and he could also handle a screech or scream here or there from any old teacher who was giving him shit for mouthing off.

John couldn't, however, handle himself in a confined room with some older male figure ready to take his head off. He acted like such a tough guy in front of people, but deep down inside, a situation like the one that had just happened, or similar ones he had with Vernon in his closet, made him extremely frantic; his nerves were shot.

He hated the fact that he felt so helpless and cowardly; at home he made his father even angrier when he acted in such a way. After years of a stocky old man giving him something to scream about, old habits died hard. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't push away that fear that crept up on him when someone got in his face like that. Sometimes he was lucky and could will himself to fight off his enemies, but other times he was stuck frozen like a deer caught in head lights.

Just like with his father; just like with Coach; and just like with Richard Vernon.

He approached the boy's change room door and heard the voices sounding from inside. There was a lot of laughter going on inside, and playful yelling. He hated the fucking fact that he had to converse with those morons. He set aside his pride and pushed the door open, and walked inside.

"Clark! What the hell was that crap at practice, man?" A red headed boy - wearing nothing but a towel around his waist - approached John as soon as he came through the door. John didn't even remember seeing the kid in the gym.

"It was nothing…"

"To hell it was! I saw you drop Peterson like a fly, man! It's about time, too. That guy really gets on my nerves." The red head watched as John dropped his bag to the bench.

John could only smirk at the kid; at least someone agreed with him. "Yeah well, it felt good."

"Hey Scott!" John's head snapped up at the sound of Jack's voice; it was directed towards the red headed boy standing with him.

"What do you want, Jack?" The boy sat down on the bench next to John's bag and pulled a t-shirt on over his head. John began to pull his own change of clothes out of the bag.

"The shower is free if you and your boyfriend want to get in there and continue your ass-kissing." Jack slapped hands with a black-haired boy and snickered as if he thought he was the funniest guy in the whole world. Bender thought he was a dick.

Scott didn't looked fazed however. "Why? You and Walshy done with it? You think I wanna go in there after you guys been pumpin' each other off? No thanks."

The other boys in the locker room laughed at Scott's comeback and Jack walked off muttering. John turned to the red headed boy with a smile; at least one of the jock boys didn't seem so bad after all. "What class do you have next?"

Scott shrugged as he pulled his pants on. "If I even decide to go?"

That definitely made Bender smile. "Wanna go for a joyride instead?"

* * *

Brian stared into the faces of three girls that had never so much had talked him in his entire life. They were in the girl's bathroom, and Brian had his back pinned to the bathroom counter while the three of them examined him.

"What did he do to you?" The tallest of the three, a brunette named Heather Wilson, had asked.

"Who?" Brian asked her exasperatedly; it was the second time that she asked him the question. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"That crazy boyfriend of yours!" A short blonde, Mary-Anne, retorted. "We know that you would never come to school looking like that unless something horrible happened!" She cocked her hip out to the side. "So spill!"

And something horrible did happen: _he had stolen their friend's body!_ "I'm fine really…and John is great. You don't have to worry! I promise!" Brian tried his best to reassure them; unfortunately, he had a hard time even convincing himself.

Claire's friends had been on his case the second he had walked through the doors of the school that very morning. The first thing they did (after they had insulted his appearance) had completely bombarded him with all of the fresh rumor-mill gossip that had happened over the previous day that he had missed. He had absolutely no idea just how much random bull-shit the students came up with when discussing current-school-affairs. There were many people that he didn't know at the school - especially when it came to Claire's crowd - and now he figured that there was equally just as much information he didn't want to know about the said people.

Who was he to care if Amy-Jo Miller flashed her great big breasts to Mr. Vernon in order to get out of detention? Surely the thought of the girl's body was enough to make him blush, but why was that news supposed to be so important to him?

If that wasn't enough, he couldn't even begin to keep up with who hated who in the group. Altogether, there were about seven girls that formed Claire's 'clique' of friends, and between them there had to be three boyfriend stealers, two 'totally out of style' girls, five liars, six cheaters, four backstabbers, and two more sluts. It was hard enough just to tell the four blondes apart, _and_ remember everyone's names.

He also learned the hard way that morning why the school's prep girls did not ride the bus to school. Mr. Standish had been kind enough to offer him a ride to school that morning in his beautiful BMW, but Brian was accustomed to his school bus riding routine and had politely declined the offer. The second he had gotten on the bus he regretted it; to be hit on by another guy was horrible enough, but when they were as pig-headed, perverted, and scary as John's friends and other big guys, Brian had almost wet himself in embarrassment and fear.

The bus was a big no for now on.

Luckily for him, the girls hadn't mentioned anything bad or nasty to put him on the spot when it came to the other Breakfast Club members. With the exception of accusing John of being the source of 'Claire's' nasty appearance, they hadn't said a word about them. Brian was thankful for that; he didn't want to be put on the spot and say anything bad about his friends, but on the other hand, the last thing that he wanted to do was to say something that would get Claire in trouble with her friends. He would feel horrible if he made her upset about some lame mistake that he made.

"Alright, if you aren't going to make yourself presentable in the morning, the least you could do is let us fix you up." Heather suggested.

The third girl, Jessica, nodded in agreement. "Yeah! Especially if you're going to be walking around the halls with us…"

Mary-Anne slapped the other girl in the arm and rolled her eyes. "Claire, don't listen to her. We know that you don't really have anyone to impress…"

"Hey!" Brian cut her off. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Mary-Anne laughed. "I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that John doesn't really care for all that dress up stuff, but you should at least keep yourself looking tidy for your own sake. I can only imagine what kind of nightmares you'll have about it later tonight."

Heather grinned at them. "We don't have to do anything drastic, but at least borrow some make-up?"

Brian swallowed and looked at the small purse in the taller girl's hands; he knew that if he even attempted to fuck up Claire's face with all of that junk, they would immediately know that something's up. Claire was able to apply her make-up without a mirror in her hand, and Brian couldn't even do lip gloss properly. He bit his lip and smiled at the other girl. "If you're offering…"

Heather grinned. "Great! Let's get you started!"

Mary-Anne grabbed at the bag and went rummaging through it. "Claire I really wanted to try this green eye shadow on you. I hate that purple stuff you always wear, and I so thought of you when I bought this!"

Jessica scoffed. "That was so mean!"

"Shut up!" Heather playfully yelled at the other two girls. "Open your eyes for me, Claire."

Brian's eyes moved to Heather's hands and he immediately tightened up when he saw the pencil between her fingers. "Do not tell me you're going to poke my eye out with that!"

The three girls stopped and stared at him as if he grew a second, third, and fourth head. His heart sunk into his chest and he knew that he had to tough it out. "Just kidding...ha ha…" He bit his lip and looked up towards the ceiling, and tried everything in his power not to blink.

Heather rested her hand on the side of his face and began to apply the eyeliner. "So do you have any plans for lunch, or do you plan on eating with us today?"

Brian blinked a few times after Heather was finished; he hadn't expected it to feel so itchy! "I promised to meet John, Andy, and the others for lunch."

Jessica sighed. "Andy Clark is so fucking sexy. I don't even know how you don't jump him when you're with him."

Brian almost choked on his own spit. "Trust me, it's not that hard."

Mary-Anne rolled her eyes as she pulled out a can of hair spray and a comb from her back pack. "You need to get over him, Jess. He's taken and has been taken since last year. I heard he's an asshole anyways; he totally jumped Jack Peterson in the gym at first lunch earlier today."

That grabbed Brian's attention. "He what?"

Heather nodded. "I saw Jack; he had a black eye and everything. I guess Andy just snapped on him." She tossed a tube of mascara onto the counter. "At least he didn't go all schizoid and tape his ass together or anything."

Brian felt uneasiness settle over him; Andy was not going to be happy with John's activities at all. He figured that John was going to have a tough time playing Andy's part if anyone did, but he surely didn't expect him to be getting Andy in trouble already. "Andy has a lot on his plate. I'm sure Jack deserved it."

"Claire!" Mary-Anne scolded. "That's Vanessa's boyfriend! I don't think she would appreciate you talking about him like that! We all know that Andy's been a little out there since he started dating that freakazoid, so don't blame Jack!"

Brian instantly felt that burning hole in his chest at the insult. "I'm sorry I said that, but don't talk about Allison that way…"

Jessica snorted. "Oh come on, even you have to admit she is a little bit weird."

Brian shrugged. "But that's why I like her."

Heather looked at the other two girls disapprovingly. "Don't talk about Claire's friends that way, girls. We've been through this before; let's not start another fight, okay?"

Brian stood from his seat as the girls began to tidy up their stuff and he gave Heather a grateful smile. "Thanks so much. I'll see you guys after lunch?"

"Seventh period!" Jessica and Mary-Anne laughed.

Brian smiled. "Right; bye!" He couldn't get out of the bathroom any faster.

It was damn hard being a girly-girl.

* * *

Andy watched as all of the students in Allison's class paired off into groups to work on the teacher, Mr. Allerdyce's assignment. They had been assigned to gather some of the magazines that he had brought from home and scan them for media related articles as they pertained to politics. Mr. Allerdyce had told the class since it was a social science assignment that they had the option to get together and work in groups if they wanted to get it finished faster.

No one approached Andy to work with them.

It was then that Andy realized that Allison really didn't have anyone else to socialize with besides the Breakfast Club. He was so used to having four or five guys - and maybe twice as many girls - who wanted to work with him. He had momentarily forgotten that he was inside the body of someone who was - sadly - a lot less popular than he was.

He didn't quite understand how she was able to pull it off. It was very hard for him to go through an entire class without chatting to the football player next to him, or the class clowns who sat behind him. For the longest time he didn't even consider himself someone who was extremely social, but when he compared his social life to the lack of one that his girlfriend had, it really was a surprise. He felt almost _deprived_ of human contact.

He supposed that he could have just tried a different approach and just see if he could successfully chat someone up. After all, it wasn't like people hated_ his_ personality anyways. Was it true that even if he acted the exact same way as he did any other day, that the same people would like him even if he did look like Allison? It wouldn't be a shock to him if people just dismissed him because of 'who' he was and how he dressed. Sadly, his group of friends and a lot of the people that he knew were kind of shallow that way.

He stared at the magazines ahead of him and wondered just how interesting Allison would find a project like that anyways. She hated politicians because of how easily they were bought off and how dirty they were. He had heard many a conversation between her and Bender about how much they despised President Reagan because he wanted to 'kill the poor' and how upset the two of them had been when he had been re-elected. Andy wasn't really against Reagan, but he didn't really support him either. He wasn't very interested in politics.

He figured if Allison had been stuck doing this project, she would probably do something outrageous that would be an anti-corruption campaign or something. She was kind of brilliant that way; she could easily create an image that screamed all the emotions that she didn't display out loud. Of course, she would not hesitate for a moment to say anything outrageous to the people that she knew well and cared about, but she didn't really say much to anyone else. All she needed was a picture.

And then it hit him upside the head like a ton of bricks.

She had her art gallery opening that night.

She had painted a picture that she had worked on for months and months. She worked on it at school, she worked on it at home, and sometimes she even worked on it at the park where it was quiet. All he knew about the painting - besides the fact that it looked so sad and depressing - was that it meant so much to her (she _had _put her heart and soul into creating it), and that she had been excited for weeks that she was able to present it to the Shermer Galleria.

Andrew had never really taken an art class in his entire life; in fact, he was almost positive that the creative portion of his brain didn't work at all. How the hell was he supposed to get up in front of a group of eccentric artists and rich buyers to present Allison's most sentimental piece? She had always told him that art always had many messages behind it, but he wasn't ever able to really figure out a message that wasn't spelled out in words; maybe an emotion, but not a message.

If he screwed up and blew the whole thing, it was a very good possibility that the Galleria would not give her another chance at showcasing her work. The owners of that particular art studio were very professional - strict even - he remembered her telling him that when she had gotten home from meeting with them. If he blew her chances, her heart would be broken.

Allison was always deprived of getting her point across to other people, and that was something that Andy had tried so hard to change since he had met her. He always wanted to make sure that her voice was heard, even if it was just to him. She could be very emotional, and her work proved just that, and he didn't want to be the one to make a joke out of her after spending the last twelve months working on her confidence with her.

He was cut out of his thoughts by the lunch bell ringing, signaling the end of class. All of the other students immediately jumped from their seats and emptied out the classroom, leaving Andy with his pile of Time Magazines, and Mr. Allerdyce.

"How is your assignment coming along, Allison?" He asked politely.

Andy just shrugged and put all of the magazines into a neat pile. "I don't know if I like these magazines."

Mr. Allerdyce cocked his head to the side and regarded him. "They're only current affairs, you know, the things that are _important_ in our country."

Andy looked down at the top magazine; a picture of the Major League Baseball's commissioner stared back up at him. "This guy was Man of the Year last year."

Mr. Allerdyce looked down at the magazine and nodded. "He _is_ a major American executive, Allison."

Andy shrugged. "He's just a sports guy. Sports aren't _that _important."

"Sure they are," He argued. "Our very own school gets money just from the people who sponsor our sports teams and athletes, you know. We need those good sports guys for revenue reasons and for recognition."

Instantly, Andy felt disgusted at the thought that even her teachers told Allison to look up to the jocks. He knew first hand that sports could be a big fucking joke. He stared up at Mr. Allerdyce and frowned. "There should be someone that makes a difference on that magazine. Not some hotshot with a 'cool' reputation."

He grabbed his books off of the desk and slung Allison's purse over his shoulder, and exited the classroom without another word.

_**TBC**_

* * *

**A/N**: Thanks for reading and please review! 


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